For a little more than a year now, the succession of on-off lockdowns and restrictions on public and economic activity have severely disrupted the personal and professional lives of many millions in France, notably for those placed on furlough. Mediapart asked readers to provide their personal accounts of the long months deprived of work and largely confined to their homes. Cécile Hautefeuille presents here a selection of the stories that came back; some are sad, some are funny, and nearly all have an underlining theme of a questioning of the sense of their lives and jobs.
Paris prosecutors have announced the opening of a nationwide investigation into fraudulent claims, amounting to millions of euros, by organised crime gangs for state payment of salaries for employees furloughed by the Covid-19 epidemic during the two-month lockdown on public movement in France which began mid-March.
