The French president addressed the nation on the evening of Monday July 12th to announce that all health workers will have to get a Covid vaccination between now and September 15th. In addition, Emmanuel Macron said that citizens will soon require a Covid pass or 'passport' for many social activities; for cinemas from July 21st and for bars and restaurants from the start of August, as well as for train journeys and longer coach trips. At the same time the president took the opportunity to praise his own track record as head of state before and during the Covid crisis and to set out some potentially controversial reforms just months ahead of next April's presidential election. Ellen Salvi reports on the president's latest televised address.
In a gradual lifting of the restrictions introduced to contain the Covid-19 epidemic in France, cafés and restaurants were allowed to re-open in June after a lengthy period of closure. But employers report increasing difficulties in finding staff, many of whom appear to have decided, after months laid off, to quit insecure and demanding jobs in which they complain of being exploited and undervalued. Cécile Hautefeuille reports from the Mediterranean resort of La Grande-Motte.
French statistics agency INSEE revised its GDP reading sharply down from +0.4% to -0.1%, saying data from the construction sector had been much weaker than its earlier figures had suggested.
As of today, groups of up to six people are allowed to eat together at outdoor restaurant terraces and France's nationwide curfew is also being pushed back from 7pm to 9pm.
From Wednesday May 19th non-essential retail outlets will be able to reopen to customers for the first time in six weeks as France gradually winds down its third national lockdown in little more than a year.
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.
France is currently experiencing its third lockdown as the government bets that by sacrificing the Easter holidays it can save the summer vacation period.
Prosecutors have started an investigation after a television report about secret meals in luxury restaurants in Paris in breach of Covid-19 restrictions - some allegedly attended by French governemnt ministers.
The French president has imposed a national lockdown, but he still will not own up to his mistakes and broken promises, argues academic Philippe Marlière.
Health minister Olivier Véran also added three more départements, including the area around Lyon, to 16 already placed under tougher mobility restrictions.
There has been widespread condemnation by the French government, medical professionals and local politicians after more than 6,000 mostly young people, many unmasked, flouted lockdown measures in Marseille to join an illegal carnival through the streets of the southern port city.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Thursday evening annnounced an initial one-month lockdown on public movement in Paris and 15 other regions as of midnight Friday to stem a resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic that is already challenging hospital capacity.
