” You want to test yourself before Christmas Eve. Good idea ! », Exclaims The Courrier Picard. “ As long as you can get an appointment or find a self-test in a pharmacy … “
Indeed, ” rush and shortage before the 24th », Notes The Telegram. ” Nearly 900,000 tests are now carried out daily, a large half of which are antigenic, point The Parisian. “It’s madness, I can’t take it anymore!” Exclaims Cyril Colombani, president of the Union of dispensing pharmacists in the Alpes-Maritimes. His phone rings continuously, from morning to night. Families in tears want a date at all costs. They tell him: “if we cannot test our children, we will not be able to see the grandparents”. (…) Everywhere, we test ourselves, the lump in the stomach, hoping for a lenient verdict, notes Le Parisien again. (…) This collective anxiety results from a sad paradox. The other can be a danger, even though depriving us of it makes us sick. In the midst of an epidemic, this (Christmas) reunion is a vital need and the only truce allowed in the midst of the war against the virus. “
The presidential campaign in brackets
Repercussions on the morale of the French, but also on the morale of politicians. Indeed, still notes Le Parisien, “the presidential campaign has disappeared since Friday. We’re only talking about the Omicron threat. And that’s just the start. The election risks being turned upside down. The controversial initiative of Christiane Taubira, the preparation of the campaign of Valérie Pécresse, the tweets of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the rallying of Philippe de Villiers to Éric Zemmour: everything takes a back seat. There is only one more for Omicron and his meteoric progress which makes fear the worst in the hospital. “
“ Elysée 2022: it will be a covidential campaign ”, title Opinion. “In the staffs, we sense that the nature of the campaign will change. (…) “At the very least, there will be no big meetings before mid-February. This will prevent the match from starting,” a minister said, “ questioned by the newspaper. “No one imagined that the presidential election could be so disrupted. (…) One thing is certain: television will take an even more important place. “
Push by abstainers
A context which should still favor abstention… This is what fears The voice of the North : “ abstention: turn on the light again, quickly! “, warns the Lille daily. A latest survey shows that 27% of voters intend to shun the ballot box for the presidential election. “ It is a mass phenomenon that feeds on the non-renewal of the casting and the absence of a split campaign. (…) Rise in individualism, distrust of political personnel, “àquoibonnisme” syndrome… Everything is good to explain this demobilization. But it does not mean a decline in engagement, valued The voice of the North. Abstention is not a sign of depoliticization but of political recomposition, with a demand for more transparency and direct democracy. And this fundamental institutional debate does not cross the sound barrier, deafened as it is by the din of security proposals. On the contrary, it should fuel an energetic vision for the future of the Fifth Republic, in many ways starchy. “
Salary wrath
Finally, another subject, this time on the front page of Release : wage increases … “ Ras the obol », Launches the newspaper. “ Mobilized to keep the country running during the health crisis, workers in the agri-food, trade or transport industry are indignant at the government’s inaction, which refuses a real increase in the minimum wage. “
Release who gets annoyed: ” when the economy picked up stronger than ever, the bosses reaped dividends and they… saw nothing fall on their bank account. Nothing more than the ordinary, that is to say, for many, a barely improved minimum wage despite, very often, difficult working conditions. (…) Hence the anger that we can feel rising here and there and the strikes that are being organized in companies not used to this kind of social movement. “
And Release prevent : ” the subject will emerge very quickly between the social partners during the branch negotiations scheduled for the end of January. And this anger absolutely must be heard. These employees and workers – who will not stop if France had to reconfigure itself, unlike executives who can telework – are not asking for the moon, just an increase in their salaries, commensurate with the effort made. “
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