The ongoing Coronavirus health crisis facing France is leading to unprecedented political change. Large sections of society are on the march: taking charge of their own professions themselves and setting up numerous support structures and initiatives. And as François Bonnet argues in this op-ed article, this sudden land grab of some very political arenas by new groups has left society's traditional institutions and political forces flat-footed.
The French government keeps repeating the point: the end of the lockdown – which started to be relaxed on May 11th - is primarily a health challenge, as we learn to live with the Covid-19 epidemic. But what the government does not say is the extent to which these first days of monitored freedom and the months to follow are set to become an absolutely unprecedented political experiment.
