The investigation by two investigative journalists published this Wednesday reveals the underside of the management of the Covid crisis. It also highlights the alerts of Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Health, inaudible in the face of Macron and Philippe.
In an investigative book published this Wednesday, January 22, 2025 by Flammarion editions, The Judges and the Assassintwo journalists from Le Monde, Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme look back on the first six months of the Covid crisis. The two men demonstrate in particular how the political highlights of the time, such as the municipal elections, the pension reform or the Yellow Vest demonstrations annihilated the multiple alert attempts launched by the Minister of Health at the time. , Agnès Buzyn with Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, on the current and future health situation.
From January 22, 2020, During the hospitalization for a high fever of a patient from Wuhan at Bichat hospital in Paris, the Minister of Health was concerned: “It’s exponential, right?”, indicates she told the Director General of Health (DGS), Jérôme Salomon. Is it time to strengthen security at Paris airports? Obviously, you still have to have the means, which is not the case, particularly with three direct flights per week between Wuhan and Paris at the time. “We have to make sure that we have detectors, that’s not easy…” complains Jérôme Salomon. “Perhaps take the lead and say why we will never do it,” suggests Agnès Buzyn.
The next day, she moved up a gear by writing directly to the tenant of Matignon, Edouard Philippe: “Hello Edouard. Can I talk to you for a moment about coronavirus crisis management? I need to be seen at the “is working without waiting for a decision from the WHO and above all that customs, the police, do not start wearing masks in their area (… We need coordination”, she writes, worried. The international alert process is still ignored by the WHO. At the same time, the Director General of Health learned that the stock of surgical masks is only 65.9 million. “There should be at least ten times more,” says Le Monde.
“You will not be able to maintain the elections, our hospitals will be overflowing”
A month later, on March 6, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas ensured that priority must be given to health personnel for the distribution of masks. Finally, “the additional need for surgical masks amounted to 230 million per week”, indicated Raymond Le Moign, director of Olivier Véran’s cabinet, in an email addressed to Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas on April 23, 2020. At this time – there, Agnès Buzyn is no longer Minister of Health, but in the campaign for mayor of Paris, the election of which is scheduled for March. On March 5, she decided to write once again to Edouard Philippe, even if she was no longer part of the executive, she surely felt the wind turning and did not wish to deny herself, nor go against her wishes. beliefs defended from the start in the health crisis.
“The worst is to come, I always told you. You will not be able to maintain the elections. Our hospitals will be overflowing,” she wrote. The next day, March 6, she did not change her speech, but this time addressed the Head of State:“This little word to tell you not to delay moving into phase 3, and to slow down activity. This is the price to pay to slow down the spread of the virus, which is already everywhere. Even if the first round of elections can be done (which I have always doubted)… My opinion is to make strong and rapid decisions, the Italian figures are very worrying and rapid,” she warns, once again. Still no effect, Emmanuel Macron announced the next day that “there is no reason, apart from for vulnerable populations, to change our going out habits”.
“I know my opinion doesn’t matter to you for weeks…”
Agnès Buzyn is soundly defeated for the mayor of Paris, and the majority with it. Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati are ahead of her, by 12 and 5 points respectively. So, back to the other fight of the moment – which she has never really given up – that of Covid. On March 2, after Emmanuel Macron announced the closure of nurseries, schools and universities, she could not help but send a scathing text message to the head of government: “I know that you are in a meeting for the second round . This is all ridiculous. Don’t make us do a second round when the situation is so serious. We’ve already been ridiculous enough as it is. I know that my opinion doesn’t matter to you for weeks. “I felt the danger, all these weeks (…) I am so sad that you did not hear me,” she adds in a second message.
“Behind your decisions, there are people who are going to die”
From then on, Agés Buzyn changed his face and did not hesitate to take out the sulphate, messages also revealed in The Judges and the Assassin which sometimes sound like accusations: “The advisor to the PR (President of the Republic) and his Scientific Council are rubbish (…) I am not losing my nerve, I am lucid, behind your decisions, these are people who are going to die (…). The PR’s speech this evening is incoherent. Play politics and take your responsibilities,” she asserts, still in a message to Edouard Philippe. On March 17, 2020, total confinement was decreed and the second round of municipal elections was postponed from March 22 to June 28. In the space of two months, and despite numerous messages, sometimes vindictive, the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn has never really been heard by the Macron-Philippe couple.
Edouard Philippe offensive against the Court of Justice of the Republic
For his part, Edouard Philippe appeared relatively critical, even acerbic, during these various appearances before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), which judges crimes or offenses committed by members of the government in the exercise of their functions. “I don’t know how to answer your question, and I don’t understand why you’re asking me this question,” the Prime Minister of the time responded coldly to the question:“Could French people have been infected, and some killed, because of the choices of the executive?”
“I had to manage two epidemics, which did not make me laugh at all: that of Covid-19 and that of the opening of umbrellas intended to protect oneself from criminal risk (…) And when a number significant number of people, who must make decisions, refer to others, to hierarchical superiors, the task of making them, you very quickly embolize a system You will never see these umbrella openers appear in your file”, he said. -he also launched. Is Agnès Buzyn in question in this sharp response? Hard to say.