Edouard Philippe's 'déconfinement' playbook - Part One

At a little after 15.00 on Tuesday 28 April 2020, Edouard Philippe mounted the podium in the Bourbon Palace, the home of the French National Assembly, to announce the details of le déconfinement, a word that has been on everyone’s lips and in their minds over the last few weeks. The French equivalent of lockdown is confinement. There actually is no opposite, so the term has been invented: le déconfinement.

An unprecedented 37 million French viewers tuned in on Easter Monday evening (13 April) to hear President Emmanuel Macron announce that 11 May would mark the beginning of the next stage of the response to Covid-19. He also promised that, over the next fortnight, a task force would be established to draft a programme of measures to move France forward. The man put in charge was Jean Castex, a classic product of the technocratic system in France. Grandson of a senator for the Gers, graduate of the Ecole Nationale de l’Adminsitration (ENA), a former advisor to ministers under the Sarkozy-Fillon government (2007-2012) and, since 2008 the mayor for the town of Prades, in the Pyrénées-Orientales*. Just last month, Castex was overwhelmingly re-elected to the mayoral office with some 75% of the vote in the first round. Politically, as this brief summary of his career indicates, Castex is closer to the republican right (a Filloniste after the defeat of Sarkozy in 2012), but is also generally credited with being a social conservative. Until the beginning of this month, his focus has mainly been on co-ordinating major sporting events, such as the build up to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It was his plan - or one of the various iterations of it - that Prime Minister Philippe outlined to the lower house. His audience was pretty sparse. Parliamentary activity has continued in France in both houses since the lockdown began - with a short break for Easter. The lockdown was declared ‘un état d’urgence sanitaire’ and in such conditions parliament cannot be dismissed nor go into recess. That’s guaranteed by the constitution. There were about 75 hand-picked deputies in the hémicycle. The speaker (Richard Ferrand) and his deputy speakers (aka le bureau), the presidents of all the parliamentary groups, the chairs and key members of all the permanent committees (legislation, finance, social affairs etc). The rest of the 577 deputies attended remotely, as they have done in the National Assembly and the Senate since the lockdown began, either in debates or in meetings of the committees.

Since Macron announced the direction of travel two weeks ago, you can imagine, dear reader, the levels of excitement and anxiety surrounding what Philippe’s feuille de route would include. The French approach to lockdown has been both the same and very different to that in the UK. Whereas here the policing the lockdown has been pretty soft, from the outset, the French have had to fill in a paper attestation (later supplemented by one for handheld devices) stating the date, time and reason for leaving home. Not having the form or failing to fill it out properly initially resulted in a fine of €38, but this was quickly increased to €135 for a first offence, rising to €3750 and even a custodial sentence for recidivists. By last week, there had been nearly 13 million police checks carried out and a little short of a million fines imposed. And not always with good reason. I know of the case of a barely literate paysan getting nailed for accompanying his wife to the pharmacy to pick up a repeat prescription and failing to put the right date on his docket. Tales of police stupidity abound, but contrary to the fetid imaginations of Russia Today and the Daily Express, this is not proof that France is on the brink of civil war.

So what did Philippe outline?

The headlines are covered elsewhere. Both the BBC and The Guardian have covered the main points, based on a three-point mantra of ‘protéger, tester, isoler’, to prevent France experiencing a second wave. Briefly, the government has promised that 100 million surgical masks and 20 million washable ones will be available every week from 11 May and they are to be worn when one is out in public and especially on public transport. There will be 700,000 tests per week and where the results are positive, the patient will be given the option of self-isolating at home with their household or in a hotel requisitioned for that purpose. At the same time, those who test positive will have their case followed up by a ‘brigade de traçage’ that will attempt to trace everyone who has come into contact with the carrier. But the PM pulled back from implementation of a tracing app, StopCovid, both on the grounds that the technology is not completely ready and that there are important civil liberty issues to be addressed. He promised moreover, a separate parliamentary debate and vote on the issue.

Schools will open on 11 May, but only crèches and elementary level schools in the first instance, with class size limited to ten. The week after, 18 May, will see middle school pupils returning to the classroom, but only in groups of 15 or fewer and where social distancing measures can still be respected. And all of this will be voluntary. To be honest, managing that looks like a nightmare, but as in the UK, there is a very acute awareness that some children need to be rescued…

Shops can re-open, so long as masks are worn and social distancing respected, although large shopping centres, where it is felt this cannot reasonably be maintained, may well remain closed or limited to food outlets. That decision will remain with local authorities and in this specific instance, the préfet, the most important state official in each department. Cafés, bars and restaurants will remain closed, with a review due in June. All religious assemblies are discouraged until 2 June at the earliest. And pretty much all sport is off until September.

The attestation will be suspended, but the measures will be applied in different ways across the country and all changes to the present situation will depend on the outcome of a review of a range of criteria on 7 May. There is also a promise that if the rate of infection and of mortality rise again, it is possible that lockdown will return.

The role of local authorities - both government officials but also the elected members of France’s village and town councils, and of its departmental and regional assemblies will be crucial. One of the features of the (at times furious) debate over lockdown in France has been the tension between the central state and local élus, particularly though not exclusively the moderate and republican right-wing leaders of France’s major cities and regions. Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile de France region, Christian Estrosi (who Like Boris Johnson was struck down by the wretched disease), and Senate speaker Gérard Larcher have been forceful advocates of a variable response ‘sur le terrain’, a cry that has been taken up by the various associations representing the different levels of local government. Regular readers (Sid and Doris de Gaulle) will know that this tension has been a recurring feature of the Macron presidency and it is a political one as well as structural.

The leaders of the various national associations of local élus - mayors, mayors of large cities, departments, regions - cannot complain that they haven’t been heard. For me, the central plank of the measures Philippe announced - a reflection of Jean Castex’s own experiences as a right-wing mayor - is the centrality (pun intended) of local authorities in adapting and applying the broad outline plan in their localities. (Some, for example Estrosi, are ahead of the curve on this already.) To all intents and purposes the Castex plan requires an unprecedented degree of délocalisation and subsidiarity, as well as state-locality co-operation. (One unresolved issue remains where, say, the préfet of a department and the local élus do not agree, who has the casting vote?)

There are a number of reasons for this. However the situation in France might look to outsiders, the public is not confident in the ability of the Macron-Philippe government to deliver, but the credibility of local élus remains high. What is more, the impact of Covid-19 has been very variable across France, with some areas having barely any cases registered. Many departments west of a line drawn from Le Havre to Marseille have seen few cases, which is one of the reasons the government put a lot of energy into moving some patients from the east of France and from Paris to hospitals in Rennes, Bordeaux and Toulouse, for example, to reduce the strain on the health service. (There are no equivalents of the Nightingale Hospitals in France and the field hospital built in Alsace to cope with the outbreak there is in the process of being decommissioned.)

For once, the Jacobin state will not be applying a ‘one size fits all’ approach. The Castex plan includes designating departments as red or green, depending on certain fixed criteria, and within green departments, the lockdown will be eased considerably compared to those designated red. The red/green map will be published on 7 May with the aim of giving French citizens a clear idea of what they can and cannot do within their local area. I’ll have a look at that when it’s published, but there is a very useful guide to the present situation here. (But bear in mind these things fluctuate.)

However, the government is very clear that while the attestation will be suspended and in many departments the lockdown will be less strict, it is clear that internal travel restrictions remain in place, limited to key workers or those with special permission, family emergencies and so forth. All rail tickets must be booked in advance and no-one should travel by car more than 100km from home. Public gatherings will be limited in number, funerals restricted to 20 mourners, but cemeteries will be reopened.

In the closing remarks to his hour-long speech, the PM called upon the the prevailing sense of civisme among the French population and the Roman qualities of vertu. He also had some choice words for his critics in the chamber. And they for him…

A suivre…
*In the original version of this article I put Prades, where Jean Castex is mayor, in the Gers. It was, of course, his grandfather, Marc Castex who was sentor for the Gers.