French cities are back in lockdown with President Macron’s emergency curfew

So it turns out that Emmanuel Macron is not an autocrat after all. No, he is one of us, one of the people, and last night, from his living room – in this instance the TV studio in the Élysée Palace, flanked by the tricolore and the flag of Europe ­– he wanted to tell us what was going on.

The second wave of Covid was well underway, he said. More than 20,000 people were being diagnosed every day in France, and some 200 a day were dying of the virus. Public Health France was coming under great pressure, with nearly 40 per cent of intensive care units taken up by Covid patients. The urgent need was to bring the number of new cases down to no more than 4,000 a day, which is what the system could cope with.

Listening to these melancholy tidings on our behalf were two of the nation’s best known faces, Anne-Sophie Lapix, from France 2, and Gilles Bouleau, of TF1. Neither journalist was in rottweiler mode (if, indeed, they ever are). Instead, they were like a couple of labradors, warm-eyed and friendly, pleased just to be there as their master – I mean their fellow citoyen – outlined what we had to do to

The important thing, they were told, was not to panic, which is always reassuring. “The situation is worrying but not out of control. We are in a second wave that is happening all across Europe.”

Not out of control. Well, that’s all right, then. Things may be bad, but they’re bad everywhere, so, hey, let’s calm down.

“We have to act,” the President continued. “We need to put a brake on the spread of the virus. We have to reduce the number of social contacts … of festive contacts, that are taking place. It will demand a big effort from everyone – but it is necessary.”

And so he went on, and on, with an estimated audience of 21 million, most of whom, one imagines, were not on the edges of their seats, but, rather, slumped back, listening to the latest roll-out of the restrictions that have become the measure of their lives.

Macron was aware that his words were likely to go down like a bad oyster. In requiring the French to finish up desert in their local bistro at the time they would normally be ordering the cheese was an affront to, as he put it, the nation’s art de vivre.

He was not, he insisted, a father giving instructions to his children. He was not seeking to infantilise France. Quite the reverse. They were all in it together. The regulations he was handing out applied to everybody, allowing us to imagine that he and his wife Brigitte, would for the time being have to forgo their Friday night treat at Chez Gaston, or, at any rate, that they would have to be on the Metro home no later than 8.30.

One can picture the scene at the gates of the Élysée. It has just gone nine as the head of state and First Lady come scurrying into view. The gendarme at the gate shakes his head.

“Desolée, Monsieur le President, mais vous et la vieille (apparently François Hollande’s name for Madame Macron) sont deux minutes en retard. Ce sera 270 euros, s’il vous plaît.”

“Merde. Prenez-vous des cartes?”

“Bien sûr.”

The nuts and bolts of Macron’s message were pretty well what was expected. There is to be a national state of emergency, but in the cities deemed to be most at risk, “maximum alert” has been declared, which is one up from an emergency.

Paris and eight other big French cities, including Lille, Lyon and Marseille, are to be placed under couvre-feu –curfew – from 9pm to 6am, every night, starting on Saturday and continuing for at least the next four weeks. Bars, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, and any other places in which people relax and enjoy themselves, must close in the middle of the evening. Anyone caught out on the street after nine can expect a heavy fine, starting at €135, rising to €1,500 for second and subsequent offences.

Schools and universities will remain open, and essential night workers, with the requisite passes, will be allowed to go about their business. During the day, those who can work from home should do so, at any rate two or three times a week. But no parties, no gatherings, no feasting. As in England, the “Rule of Six” is to apply at all times.

So will it work? Will it be effective? Just as important, will these latest measures do the business for the President in the opinion polls? Ask me again after the weekend? Pascal Crépey, a leading epidemiologist at Paris’s School of Advanced Studies in Public Health, quoted in Le Parisien, believes that the coming curfew is necessary. “My only criticism is the period of six weeks. It’s a bit long in cities like Aix and Marseille where the epidemic is already starting to slow. I wouldn’t be surprised if public discontent rises.”

For Anne-Claude Crémieux, a specialist at the Paris Saint-Louis hospital, Macron’s decision was the right one. “Finally, we are starting to draw the real lessons from this crisis – to stop chasing the epidemic. This 9pm curfew is a strong sign. It must have results … and for the first time, a number is fixed. The government’s objective is to reduce the number of new infections per day to three-to-four thousand.”

The curfew bell will ring for the first time tomorrow night. In the meantime there is still Friday night to get through. Will the French party their way into the coming lockdown, or will they stay at home and watch Emily in Paris on Netflix? As far as the young people of France are concerned, I would guess the former. As Macron himself put it, “it’s tough to be 20 in 2020.”