The Minister of Health Olivier Véran was in Marseille yesterday to meet with local officials, following the controversies surrounding the decision to close bars and restaurants in the Aix-Marseille metropolitan area.
Initially scheduled for Saturday, the decision has been postponed to midnight on Sunday. This measure would allow restaurant owners to sell off their stock of goods.
Olivier Véran has backed down on the review clause, so the various parties now plan to meet next Sunday rather than in 15 days to reassess the situation and see if the measures can be eased or maintained.
“I am fully aware that some of the measures are being debated (…), raising concerns, questions, even anger,” Olivier Véran explained during a press conference at the Timone public hospital. “These measures are necessary, they are temporary but they are not arbitrary.”
“We got what we asked for,” reacted Renaud Muselier, LR president of the region. “We won’t take to the streets, we’ve gained eight days, it’s a step forward.”
