Police raid home of health minister
Former PM also target in probe of COVID response
PARIS• Police raided the homes and offices of France’s health minister, its public health director and former prime minister on Thursday as a judicial investigation into the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis deepened.
The early morning searches stunned many in France, which has one of the highest COVID death tolls in Western Europe, and prompted Prime Minister Jean Castex to pay tribute to Health Minister Olivier Veran’s courage and determination.
“I have full confidence in Mr. Veran,” Castex told a press conference, held after France announced curfews for Paris and eight other big cities. “I attest before you, he leads from the front.”
Although the prime minister and his cabinet do not enjoy legal immunity, unlike the president, police raids on the homes of sitting ministers are uncommon in France.
The probe was launched in July by France’s Court of Justice, established in 1993 to handle cases of alleged ministerial misconduct in the wake of the country’s contaminated blood scandal of the 1980s and 1990s.
The court received some 90 complaints lodged by doctors, nursing homes and local authorities over the government’s handling of the pandemic. The complaints included accusations of involuntary homicide and endangering life.
All but nine were dismissed by the prosecutor. The remainder were wrapped into a single probe that aims to establish whether those in charge at the outset of the outbreak showed a “lack of will to fight a disaster.”
Investigations are also under way in Italy, where Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was quizzed by prosecutors in June about his handling of the crisis. In Spain, there are investigations against the central, regional and municipal authorities.
The raids took place just hours after President Emmanuel Macron ordered a night curfew affecting almost a third of the French population, seeking to tackle a surging second wave. France recorded 22,951 cases on Wednesday, the third time in six days with more than 20,000 new infections.
Castex said the country had witnessed a “sudden and spectacular acceleration” of the pandemic. In Paris, 46 per cent of intensive care unit beds are now occupied by coronavirus patients, he said.
In just the past 10 days, a million new cases in Europe have been recorded, raising the total since the start of the pandemic to 7 million.
A top World Health Organization official warned that death rates on the continent this winter could be five times worse than previous highs if people aren’t strict about masks and social distancing.