Dealing with an upsurge in the coronavirus pandemic in her city, the environmentalist mayor of Marseille admits to making mistakes in her health management. “We have perhaps not realized what was happening, because we observed a decrease in viral distribution”, explains Michele Rubirola.
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“We made mistakes when we let big parties take place, especially on the rooftops,” she added, referring to the scenes of jubilation that marked the summer on the Canebière. “The question was no longer in the air. People were thinking of something other than barrier gestures, ”sums up Benoît Payan, the first socialist deputy.
These few concessions contrast with the epidermal reaction of these Marseille elected officials to the announcement, at the end of last week, of new restrictions imposed in their city.
“The Marseillais adapt, restrict themselves and constrain themselves, the city of Marseille has been able to respond to the health crisis, argued Benoît Payan at a press conference on Thursday, Sept. 24. “Insult”, “collective punishment”, “treason”, the local elected officials, of all sensibilities confused and didn’t have enough hard words to castigate the decision announced, without consultation according to them, by Olivier Véran to close bars and restaurants to two weeks.
Renaud Muselier, who is the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, even lodged an appeal with the courts to have the measure cancelled. Before admitting that he was not actually contesting the restrictions imposed on Marseille.
“It would have been acceptable to all if we had started a discussion with local elected officials,” he said to Le Figaro after his appeal was rejected on Wednesday.
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The epidemiological situation in the Bouches-du-Rhône, “gradually deteriorated from the end of July”, insists the vice-president of the administrative court of Marseille in her interim order, recalling that during the third week of September the number of cases for Covid-19 was 209 per 100,000 in the department, against 87.4 on average in France.
These figures then rose to 281 per 100,000 in Marseille, with 38% of resuscitation beds occupied by COVID-1 patients, the magistrate pointed out.
