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An electric shock? Emmanuel Macron could announce to the French, on the night of Wednesday October 14, new binding measures to fight against the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic in France. Among the measures planned by the executive, curfews could be introduced in areas on high alert.
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To what corresponds such a decision? Who takes it? Have you already applied in France and abroad? Has it paid off in the fight against the epidemic? Response items.
What is a curfew?
The curfew is not a legal term. This expression defines theprohibition that the population of a geographic area – a country, a department or a city – circulate freely in public space during a certain period, most often in the afternoon, at night and early in the morning. It can be decreed for a health emergency, such as the Covid-19 epidemic, or for a public disorder. But the introduction of a curfew is extremely rare in peacetime. Law No. 55-385 of April 3, 1955, a procedure that allows prefects to establish a curfew to stop urban violence, had been voted to allow the declaration of a state of emergency during the Algerian war.
Who can apply it?
Various actors. Mayors can issue municipal decrees to institute a curfew in their municipality on behalf of Article L.2212-2 of the General Code of Local Authorities, which confers on the municipal police the function of ensuring “good order, public safety, protection and sanitation “. But such orders can be challenged in the name of the free movement of people, as happened in Nice and Béziers in March 2020. In fact, the fight against the health crisis is the responsibility of a special police force delegated to the state. and his representative in the department, the prefect, remembers The Municipal Gazette.
Article L.3131-1 of the Civil Health Code, modified by the health emergency law of March 23, 2020, instructs the Minister of Health to prescribe “Any measure proportionate to the risks incurred and appropriate to the circumstances of time and place in order to prevent and limit the consequences of possible threats on the health of the population”. The Minister of Health can empower the prefects, who represent the State, to take all measures related to the establishment of a curfew, informing the prosecutor.
“Very often, a prefectural decree is accompanied by a municipal decree: the mayor considers that the prefectural decree is not enough and decides to put a cape back”, notes, however, attorney Thierry Vallat in Le Figaro.
Have there been curfews in France?
Yes, in 2005, at the time of the urban riots in various French suburbs. And in the spring of 2020, to stop the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic in the country. More than a hundred cities in mainland France had imposed, by municipal or prefectural decree, time restrictions on their inhabitants. In most cases, residents of the affected localities were unable to move around the city between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Some cities even imposed a curfew from 8:00 p.m.
As during confinement, the exceptional travel certificates made it possible to bypass the curfew when presenting supporting documents. For example, travel between home and work was authorized, as well as travel for health or family reasons. Regarding the control of these measures by the police, the fines ranged from a first class ticket (38 euros) for orders issued by mayors to a fourth class ticket (fixed fine) for prefectural orders.
And since the end of March, an entire department, Guyana, has been experimenting with the curfew in various ways. The prefect had decided for the first time on May 11, when leaving the confinement, a curfew from 11 at night to 5 in the morning, but had been de facto preceded by the mayor of Cayenne, Marie-Laure Phiner -Horth, who on March 24 had banned traffic between 8 pm and 6 am in his city. For several weeks, dozens of successive orders were taken, with curfews at 7 pm, then at 5 pm, with a driving ban on Saturday afternoons and Sunday. The system has been gradually relaxing with the deceleration of the epidemic: the travel ban now extends from midnight to 5 in the morning from Monday to Sunday, in 16 municipalities of the department.
And abroad?
Other countries have established a curfew to combat the epidemic. This was the case in Australia, Melbourne, where residents had to stay home between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. (this measure was lifted on September 28). And in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, residents had to adhere to a curfew from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. (the measure was lifted on August 26). In Tunisia, in Greater Tunisia, the curfew is reintroduced from Thursday, October 8 and for two weeks. Residents cannot move from 9 pm to 5 am on weekdays and from 7 pm to 5 am on weekends.
Germany has opted for an alternative solution: residents of large cities, such as Berlin or Cologne, are not obliged to stay home after a specified time. However, restaurants, bars and all shops (except pharmacies and gas stations) must close between 23:00 and 6:00. Frankfurt has even reduced the closing hours of stores to 10pm.
The same in the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed the closure of pubs in some regions on Monday. In Spain, Catalonia made the decision on Wednesday to close bars and restaurants for two weeks.
Is this measure effective?
Little data is available on the subject, especially abroad. But for those around Emmanuel Macron, “The difference in the number of deaths is in the tens of thousands depending on the options that are made. Including the schedule of a curfew: one hour changes the situation “. In Guyana, the curfew has paid off. According to a study prepublished Monday, to which the Pasteur Institute contributed, and that Launching transmitted, the curfew made it possible to reduce the virus transmission rate.
“Due to the curfew, we have benefited from the halving of the peak of hospitalizations in intensive care”, thus explained Clara de Bort, Director of the Regional Health Agency of French Guyana, in franceinfo. Without giving figures, the mayor of Compiègne also estimated in franceinfo that “The curfew has been a useful tool”. Philippe Marini (LR) had instituted it on March 23, between 10:30 pm and 5 am And to justify: “SThis is the way to avoid re-containment, the restriction of transport, a new disruption in economic activity, that is why I believe that the curfew is a good discipline. “
