A few flowers, a handful of local elected officials, and an inscription in gold letters engraved in the marble: “For the victims of Covid-19, we do not forget them”. On October 26, Patrice Barrier, mayor of the town of Taissy (Marne), solemnly inaugurated a commemorative plaque in tribute to the victims of the pandemic, installed in the memorial garden of the local cemetery. “It is above all symbolic: we quickly forget the tens of thousands of deaths from Covid, and the way in which some left,” says the elected official, almost five years after the announcement of the first death of the virus, in China. In this town of just over 2,000 inhabitants, located around ten kilometers from Reims, few officials made the trip on this Saturday in October. But in the front row, a septuagenarian welcomes the day’s tribute: Lionel Petitpas, resident of the neighboring town of Cormontreuil, speaks of a “small victory”.
For more than four years, the man has been fighting to convince the executive to organize a day or a national tribute ceremony in honor of the Covid dead and caregivers – so far without much success. At the same time, his association, called “Victims of Covid-19”, contacted “around ten” municipalities across France in order to carry out local commemorations. In Cormontreuil, Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne), Troyes (Aube) or Talant (Côte d’Or), steles were erected, trees planted, plaques engraved, and ceremonies organized. But at the national level, still nothing.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” sighs Lionel Petitpas, who himself lost his wife Joëlle to Covid on March 29, 2020. The retiree sent a dozen letters to the President of the Republic, to different ministers and local elected officials. Alongside it, other associations of victims or caregivers, such as “Coeur vide 2019”, the Covid Ad Memoriam Institute or the French Hospital Federation (FHF) continue to demand the creation of a national tribute. “But nothing helps, the situation is blocked. We have the impression that we have been played,” regrets Sabrina Sellami, vice-president of Coeur Vide 19.
“The ball was in the court of the Élysée”
For several months, these associations believed in the realization of their request. The executive sent them several response letters. In these letters, which L’Express was able to consult, the Presidency of the Republic indicates for example “that the reflections relating to the establishment of a day dedicated to the memory of those who were swept away by Covid-19 continue” (March 2021), as do “reflections on how to pay tribute” to these victims (May 2021). In April 2021, at the end of a council of ministers, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal maintained the hope of the families, indicating to the press “that there will obviously be this moment of tribute and mourning for the Nation”.
In July 2021, through requests, several associations arranged a meeting with advisors from Jean Castex in Matignon. “We were then asked for our specifications, we mentioned dates, places that would be symbolic for us… They took note of everything. At that moment, we really believed that it was going to happen,” says Sabrina Sellami. “At the time, the Prime Minister gave a favorable opinion to the organization of this day of tribute to the President of the Republic. The ball was in the court of the Élysée,” says a former advisor to the executive at L’Express. But as the months passed, no definitive decision was made.
Following renewed requests from victims’ families, new meetings are being organized in February 2022, then in November of the same year. This time welcomed at the Elysée, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron’s successive health advisors, Anne-Marie Armanteras and Katia Julienne, the associations are disillusioned. “It was a bit of a cold shower: we understood that nothing had been done or guaranteed, that Covid was not over and that, therefore, it was not the right time… Without us being clearly said it was no,” remembers Sabrina Sellami. In February 2023, a final meeting took place at the Elysée, attended once again by Katia Julienne, as well as the memory advisor of the President of the Republic, Bruno Roger-Petit. “We had an attentive ear. But once again, they did not give a clear answer, indicating that they would contact us again,” assures Lionel Petitpas. “It’s been almost two years, and we haven’t had any news,” he sighs. Contacted, an advisor to the executive confirms that “the subject is still under study”, but that “the changes of the past year […] were able to slow down the process without calling into question its relevance.” “We are very determined that [le sujet] can emerge,” it is added.
“Do not stir up controversies”
In the meantime, certain political figures have taken up the issue, such as Professor Philippe Juvin, head of the emergency department at the Georges Pompidou hospital and MP for Hauts-de-Seine. On September 17, the elected official filed a bill establishing a day of tribute to the victims of Covid every March 17, the anniversary of the first confinement. Before him, the deputies Matthieu Orphelin (EELV), Frédéric Valletoux (Horizons) or Patricia Mirallès (Renaissance) had already worked on such proposals, without any of them coming to fruition. “I think that other political concerns have emerged, at the same time as an unofficial desire on the part of everyone to move on,” said Philippe Juvin. Despite everything, the doctor insists that he will “not give up”. “Perhaps because I experienced this crisis from the inside, and I saw people die in the exercise of their profession or alone in the hospital, even though they should not have” , he whispers.
Appointed Minister of Health from February to September 2024, Frédéric Valletoux – also former director of the FHF – had himself mentioned in The Parisian wanting to put the subject back on the table, last winter, indicating “do everything to” include in the national agenda a day of tribute for the victims of Covid. “I had already met Emmanuel Macron on March 17, 2021 to propose this idea to him, and he had given me agreement in principle,” he underlined then. But so far, his “booster shot” does not seem to have had any effect on the President of the Republic.
“This period of Covid has been very conflictual, including on the management of the dead and the deprivation of mourning. There is perhaps a desire not to reawaken these controversies, at a time when the head of state is at the lowest point of his popularity”, says the historian Jean Garrigues, questioned about the maintenance of this presidential “blurry”. This specialist in political history also recalls that national tribute days are usually dedicated to victims of terrorism or to soldiers and civilians who died for France, while the tribute ceremonies chosen by Emmanuel Macron since the start of his presidency instead focused on “great historical or cultural figures”. “There, we would rather be on an anonymous and collective tribute, which corresponds less to this type of ceremonial. There has never been a national tribute for the victims of the Spanish flu, AIDS or cancer… Which would risk generating forms of memory competitions,” he points out.
The fact remains that in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Italy and even Spain, national tributes have taken place since 2020, sharpening the desire of French associations to also obtain their commemoration. While waiting for a possible presidential green light, the founder of the Covid-19 Ad Memoriam Institute Laëtitia Atlani-Duault continues to organize, every March 17, her own tribute ceremonies, in partnership with the FHF. In 2025, a day of conference will be organized in Paris, with an evocative theme: “How to build memories of the pandemic?”. “We really hope that an announcement will be made from the government on this occasion,” confides the anthropologist to L’Express. According to the association’s count, the Covid pandemic has caused the death of “170 to 180,000” people in France since 2020.
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