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\u00a9 Global Look Press \/ Federico Pestellini \/ www.imago-images.de<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Rachel Marsden, columnist, political strategist and host of an independently produced French-language program that airs on Sputnik France.
\nRT.com<\/p>\n
President Macron\u2019s decision to return France to lockdown could have serious repercussions, particularly if he has to borrow heavily from the European Union to compensate struggling businesses.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s common for French hospitals to be overwhelmed by seasonal viruses. French newspaper headlines dating back to\u00a0January 2017<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0January 2018\u00a0<\/a>refer to hospitals being overwhelmed by the simple flu. The government has never bombarded those of us who live in France with daily infection rates, then sent healthy citizens into house arrest for months \u2013 until now. It\u2019s worth asking why.<\/p>\n At the beginning of September, two high-ranking sources \u2013 one retired from the French Interior Ministry, the other a retired general \u2013 said that France would be sent back into total lockdown by the beginning of November. Their assertion was hard to believe, given that, at that point, everything had nearly returned to normal in the wake of the two-month total lockdown from March to May, which relegated the entire country\u2019s population to their homes for 23 hours per day under the pretext of Covid-19. One even proposed a date for the next lockdown: October 29.<\/p>\n Fast forward to the end of September. Bars, gyms and swimming pools are ordered closed, followed a couple of weeks later by an imposed curfew in major metropolitan areas from 9pm to 6am. Then on October 28, French President Emmanuel Macron\u00a0addressed the nation<\/a>\u00a0to announce a second full national lockdown to begin at midnight on October 29.<\/p>\n Only this time, it would be slightly different, Macron said. Education and work would continue. Schools would remain open, but universities and virtually everyone else not working in a factory, field or public service, would have to transition to remote working from home online \u2013 subsequently described on the government\u2019s website as \u201c100 percent mandatory wherever it\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n This crisis is serving as an accelerator, resulting in the implementation of certain measures that the leadership in Paris and Brussels have been keen to invoke for some time. Macron, the minister of economy and industry during the tenure of former French president Francois Hollande, has long been pushing for a massive digital transition.<\/p>\n Already on September 14, Macron announced \u20ac7 billion in investment in the digital economy, with \u20ac2.3 billion specifically allocated to \u201caccelerating the digital transition of businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n