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No, the rabbit in the hat has not arrived yet. The leaders of the 27 European states are overwhelmed by the second wave of the pandemic. And stunned. The galloping rise in infections is pushing Europe into its darkest hour. This time even Angela Merkel, whose mediation skills have pulled the EU out of the tunnel of disputes over the Recovery Fund, doesn’t have the magic wand. Even the chancellor is dealing with the new emergency in Germany, where a healthcare system envied across Europe is at risk of collapse. While Emmanuel Macron, in a dramatic evening address to the nation, admits that this second wave leaves everyone “overwhelmed and surprised”, it will be “harsher and more deadly than the first.”
“We are in a very serious situation,” says Merkel after a meeting with the territorial governors in which a closure was decided from next Monday. Closed restaurants, bars, theaters, cinemas, gyms. The stores remain open but only if they guarantee the presence of a maximum of people every 10 square meters. 10 billion in aid to assigned companies. But all this seems a palliative before the numbers of the virus, that “grow exponentially”, says the chancellor. And it certainly doesn’t help that, for the second time since the start of the pandemic, his party, the CDU, was forced to postpone the congress over the choice of a successor: a decision accompanied by tough internal clashes that are not ritualistic in politics. German “moderate”.
“Our health system still endures but if this trend of infections continues, we will reach its maximum capacity in the coming weeks”, continues to be Merkel’s alarm. Because “in many areas we cannot control and track the virus” and “ICU admissions have doubled in the last 10 days.” The tone is serious. The admission: “Today is a difficult day for us politicians too.” Not everyone knows what to do, in Germany as in other European states.
In the last 24 hours in Germany there have been 14,964 new infections, according to the Robert Koch Institute, 85 deaths. “If we wait until intensive care is complete, it will be too late,” says Health Minister Jens Spahn, who tested positive for covid last week.
This morning, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was embarrassed by pressing questions from journalists about why we are in the middle of a new emergency without having foreseen it well in advance. Tomorrow the 27 Heads of State and Government of the Union will meet by videoconference to try to put their hand in what they have not achieved so far. Namely: coordination between states to track, test and monitor a virus that seems impregnable.
But the smile of the success of July, when they managed to launch the recovery fund, has disappeared from everyone’s mouth. Also because the recovery fund is still “pending” negotiations with the European Parliament: there is still no agreement on the rule of law and the budget. But above all because this second wave is undermining all the propellant momentum of the ‘next generation EU’: the new lockdowns put the economy in a difficult situation, degrading the weak signs of recovery.
The European Commission will say so on November 5, when the new economic forecasts are presented. But the stock exchanges are already saying it today: they close throughout Europe. The worst was Frankfurt (-4.17%) with 11,560 points, followed by Paris (-3.37%) with 4,571 points, Madrid (-2.66%) with 6,474 points and London (-2.55%) in 5,582 points. Milan closes at -4 percent. In essence, today about 230,000 million euros have vanished. In Piazza Affari, the collapse of the Ftse Mib means a loss of 17.6 billion in share value. The Vix Fear Index, which measures the
The volatility of the US stock market reaches its highest level since June.
France is also heading towards new blockades starting Friday, Macron announces late at night. Bars and restaurants closed, schools remain open but travel between regions is prohibited. You can only go shopping, bring assistance or for health reasons. Only today 70 thousand new infections. The tightening adopted so far, such as the curfew in the high-alert zones, has been “useful but not sufficient”, says the French president, “but now it is not enough, it is no longer enough. The virus circulates in France at a speed that even the most pessimistic forecasts had predicted. We are submerged by the sudden acceleration of the epidemic, as in all parts of Europe ”, the second wave will be“ harder and more lethal than the first ”. And “herd immunity would mean 400,000 deaths.”
The government of Belgium, the first country in Europe by the number of infections, restaurants and bars that have been closed for ten days, curfew at 10 at night this week, could launch a new decree. In Belgium, asymptomatic and coviditis doctors were allowed to work in exceptional cases, given the seriousness of the ward situation.
Switzerland, as it has been known for days, has already decided to favor young people in therapy, leaving out the elderly. An election that has sparked much discussion and that falls as a grim warning across Europe. In Spain tomorrow Parliament will vote on the new restrictive measures decided by the government.
The whole EU cannot find a solution in the new skein. In recent months, the leaders had favored the response to the economic crisis: a complicated file but obviously it is the only possible one in a Union guaranteed above all by the single currency and little else. The epidemiological part, tests, tracing, coordination between states on treatments, has ended in the background: unable to flourish because the EU is a sum of national competencies that are divided. Never like in times of pandemic.
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