Corona Daily 295: Curfew at Night, Metro by Day

France is the only democratic nation where this can happen.

At the crack of dawn, on Thurs. 15 October, the French police conducted raids on the houses of Edouard Phillippe, the French Prime Minister until July this year; Agnes Buzyn, the health minister at the beginning of the year; Olivier Veran, the current health minister, Jerome Salomon (aka Monsieur Covid),  the Head of France’s health authority; and Sibeth Ndiaye, the French government spokeswoman until July. All of them co-operated with the police. Saloman called the national BFM-TV network and abruptly cancelled his breakfast interview appointment for “personal reasons”. Later in the day, some of them had their offices raided.

Emmanuel Macron didn’t get a knock on the door at dawn, because under French law a sitting president has immunity from prosecution in court investigations launched to uncover ministerial criminal offences.

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 In 1993, France created a special court CJR (Court of the Justice of the Republic) to try ministers for administrative and criminal offences committed while holding an office.

After the French lockdown in April and May, complaints started pouring in. Individuals, doctors’ associations, police officers, prison personnel, and relatives of Covid victims accused the ministers of misleading the country. In March, ministers had said “masks were not useful”.  This was to cover up the mask shortage. French people expect high standards of moral behaviour from their ministers. They should have been candid about the mask shortage, people said. Officials and ministers are also accused of inconsistent messages and lack of application of the WHO recommendations.

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The second wave of covid has started in France in earnest. From today, Macron has announced a strict curfew from 9 pm to 6 am in Paris and eight other regions, likely to continue till 1 December. Anyone found breaking the curfew will be fined 135 Euro on the spot. Restaurants are frustrated because people must leave as soon as they arrive to reach home before the curfew starts.

At the same time, Jean Lemoyne, the tourism minister, urged people to go on vacation during the upcoming school break to boost the tourism industry.

Contact tracing has been a disaster. In a TV interview, Jean Castex, the current Prime Minister, admitted he had not downloaded the contact tracing app. When asked the name of the app, he misnamed it.

On social media, people have wondered if the virus operates only in at night. “Curfew at night, crowded metro by day”, they laughingly say.

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The French court of justice will try all these ministers for “abstaining from combating a disaster” (article 223-7: France’s penal code). The charge requires evidence that the accused intentionally decided not to act in the face of the growing Covid-19 emergency. The charge applies when people are put in danger, or if there is failure to save lives. Investigators must show the actions of ministers were willfully absent, rather than negligence or mistakes.

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When reading this news, I simply wondered what would have happened if similar courts and laws had existed in the USA. And if the President of the USA was not immune. What would be the right punishment for deliberate and destructive pandemic management? It is noteworthy that unlike France, USA still retains the capital punishment.

Ravi