anger in Italy, fear of reconfinement in France, Spain refuses

A new round of measures intended to curb an epidemic that appears to be out of control in parts of the old continent has been badly received, in particular in Italy, a country left devastated by the health crisis in the spring.

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The Italians are fed up

Thousands of people demonstrated in several cities across the country on Monday night against the closure of restaurants and bars from 6 p.m. and all theaters, cinemas and sports halls for a month. Violent incidents occurred in particular in Milan and Turin, the two large cities in the north of the country, where riot police were deployed and responded with tear gas canisters.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is due to present support measures for the sectors of activity and professions most affected by the restriction measures on Tuesday.

But some no longer believe it: in the small port town of Pesaro, not far from San Marino (east), the police intervened in a restaurant whose owner had invited 90 people to dinner to express his refusal to close at 6 p.m. “You can stop me, I will not close any more,” he said.

Reconfinement in France?

In neighboring France, President Emmanuel Macron met on Tuesday a Defense Council dedicated to Covid-19, then his Prime Minister Jean Castex received the political forces and employers’ and trade union organizations, before a second defense council also devoted to the epidemic.

“The second wave will probably be stronger than the first” and “many of our fellow citizens have not yet realized what awaits us”, warned Jean-François Delfraissy on Monday, the president of the Scientific Council which guides the government.

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Home curfews and confinement

The other European countries are on the same trajectory as the Czech Republic, which will impose from Wednesday a curfew from 9 p.m. to 4.59 a.m., until November 3. “We are not seeing the drop we were hoping for in recent days,” Health Minister Roman Prymula told reporters, adding that the recent restrictions had “had a negligible effect”.

Same trend in Spain, where Catalonia said Monday to think about a possible confinement of the population at home at the weekend. Other Spanish regions have also tightened restrictions following Sunday’s declaration of a state of health emergency for 15 days. The government of Pedro Sanchez, on the other hand, has ruled out for the moment a home confinement as in the spring.

“We are not going to control the pandemic”

The restrictive measures were also extended in Quebec, the Canadian province most affected by the epidemic with more than 100,000 cases and 6,150 deaths (for 217,000 cases and approximately 10,000 deaths at the federal level).

The United States, the most affected country in the world, now has 225,689 deaths, and Brazil 157,397.

On the move in the key state of Pennsylvania, US President Donald Trump, on the defensive, had to swear Monday that he “had not” capitulated to the virus, after ambiguous remarks by one of his relatives. “We are definitely in the process of turning the page,” he continued.

The day before, statements by White House chief of staff Mark Meadow had reinforced the feeling of an administration powerless, even overwhelmed by the situation. “We are not going to control the pandemic, we are going to control the fact that we can have vaccines.”