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HEALTH

ANALYSIS: Why have so many in Marseille rebelled against French government health measures?

France's second largest city has seen a lot of anger at the government since the decision to temporarily close down all restaurants and bars in the city, in a bid to halt the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the area.

ANALYSIS: Why have so many in Marseille rebelled against French government health measures?
Bar and restaurant workers throw plates on the street to protest against the Covid-19 closures. Photo: AFP

The decision, announced by health minister Olivier Véran during a press conference, did not go down well with local authorities, who said they were not consulted in advance and quickly denounced what they claimed was a central government out of touch with anywhere that was not Paris.

The metropole of Aix-Marseille is currently the only area of France on 'maximum alert' level which involves closing all bars and restaurants, although Paris could be following suit on Monday.

On the first day of the closure, several bars and restaurants seemed to be deliberately flouting the rules.

“End the health dictatorship,” read the banner of a restaurant that refused to close down, along with a few other establishments in the city, at the risk of steep fines if caught by police.

“I'm not scared, not of anything, I don't give a flying fig,” the owner of one of the restaurants that kept open told French media.

 
But was this a Covid-specific situation or are the people of Marseille more prone to rebel against the Paris-based government?

A restaurant that did not want to close down in Marseille. Photo: AFP

 
'A city without name'

 
Marseille is France's second biggest city. It is a long-time rival of Paris, for its size, its football team and rap music. 
 
“Marseille is a city that has a special relationship with the French state,” said Gilles Pinson, a professor in political science at the Sciences Po University in Bordeaux.
 
To understand that special relationship, we have to go a little bit back in time.
 

Marseille was integrated into the French kingdom in 1481, relatively late and following several failed attempts by the central power that were pushed back by rebels in the city.
 
In the centuries that followed, this became some sort of pattern: Marseille rebelled, Paris quashed the rebellions.
 
One of the most humiliating episodes occurred just after the French revolution in 1789, when the Paris authorities punished Marseille for its refusal to back up the Jacobin government by renaming it “A city without name.”
 
The port
 
Despite the occasional tensions with Paris, Marseille for a long time enjoyed a relatively autonomous power over its economy, which – thanks to its port – was thriving. 
 
Then, in the 1960s, the French state decided to nationalise the port and Marseille lost control over its top income source.
 
“By meaning well, the state contributed to break down Marseille's economic system,”  Pinson said.
 
This was, Pinson said, “a painful story of impoverishment” and its scars are still visible today. 
 

 

A new kind of French rebellion? Photo: AFP
 
When local officials following the bar and restaurant closures used loaded rhetoric such as “collective punishment” and “sanctions,” they remind Marseille and the world that Paris had a history of acting in a way it said it was in Marseille's best interest, but turned out to be harmful.
 
“Local authorities in Marseille learned long ago how to use old tensions between Marseille and the capital to score points,” said Nicolas Maisetti, a political researcher at the Gustave Eiffel University Paris-Est.
 
When Michelle Rubirola, Marseille’s Green Party Mayor, tweeted: “I do not accept the people of Marseille to be victims of political decisions that no one can understand,” she was spinning an old line, appealing to a decades-old, hurt collective ego.
 
'Marseille against the world' 
 

This also helped explain the city's cult-like enthusiasm for Didier Raoult, the controversial microbiologist made world-famous for his unequivocal support for hydroxychloroquine as a remedy for Covid-19.
 

 
 
Raoult's ragged looks, loud voice and unashamed bashing of the “elites”, made him the “ultimate” Marseille character, Maisetti said. 
 
“It was Marseille against the world. People supported him no matter what he said, it was crazy,” Maisetti said.

 

A few years back, Maisetti created a website called Marseillologie.net, a website that aims to do away with what he said was an obsession by the rest of France to make Marseille into an exception. 
 

“The stereotype of Marseille – that it is a dirty, crime-ridden, corrupt city, neglected the elites and infested by mafia – has had harmful impacts during the pandemic,” Maisetti said.
 
Although not true, stereotypes like these pushed a narrative that Marseille could not itself make its own decisions about Covid-19 – it could not even govern itself properly, Maisetti explained.
 

“But really, you could talk about Marseille like you talk about Gironde, or Brittany, or Corsica,” he said, other areas of France that traditionally have sought to emphasise their local uniqueness and difference from the capital.

 
“Mistrust towards Paris is not the exception, it's the rule, but people pay more attention to it when it happens in Marseille because it fits into their world-view,” Maisetti said.

 

'France is extremely centralised'
 
Cesare Mattina, an Italian sociologist at the Aix-Marseille University, agreed. 
 
“I think we should turn the question around: Is Marseille a particularly rebellious city or is the French state just really centralised?”
 
Mattina, who grew up in Napoli, another proud European city that has a longstanding rival relationship with the capital, said Marseille historically had been more subject to domination than his Italian hometown.
 
“France extremely centralised, everything is focused on Paris,” he told The Local.

 
“There is an almost colonial link that exists between Paris and certain cities, Marseille too. In Italy, Rome is the capital, but Rome does not mean everything in Italy,” Mattina said, adding that Germany and Spain also allowed more autonomy to regions than France.
 
“In France, the Parisian domination is so accepted that it's perceived as something against which we are powerless.”
 
“My Italian point of view is that, with respect to Covid-19, is that if decisions are taken too far away from the cities and towns themselves, they won't work,” he said.
 
 

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HEALTH

How serious is the threat from dengue fever in France?

As tiger mosquitoes are now present in over 80 percent of mainland France, health authorities are worried that local transmission of tropical diseases, like dengue fever, will increase.

How serious is the threat from dengue fever in France?

As of January 2024, tiger mosquitoes – known for their ability to carry diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus – had been detected in 78 of France’s 96 mainland départements, including the Paris region.

This has left public health authorities concerned about the spread of dengue fever in France, particularly this summer as large crowds are expected amid the Olympic Games.

READ MORE: MAP: Tiger mosquitoes reach northern France

How common is dengue fever in France?

In the first four months of 2024, 1,679 cases of dengue fever were identified in mainland France, a number that is 13 times higher than the same period last year, Le Parisien reported.

Crucially, however, none of these are believed to have been contracted in mainland France – they were all reported among patients who had recently travelled from the tropical regions where dengue fever is common.

The majority of cases were from people who had visited the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe – where the disease is endemic.

These islands are for administrative purposes part of France – so often show up in French health data – but they are roughly 7,000km away from Paris.

So far, there have not been any indigenous cases (autochtone – or people infected on mainland French soil) yet this year.

Local transmission of the disease remains relatively rare. In 2023, nine separate outbreaks of indigenous dengue transmission were identified, one of which occurred in the Paris region. These led to 45 cases of local transmission (in mainland France).

Most were in southern France – in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions – though one outbreak occurred in the Paris region, according to French public health authorities.

This is less than 2022, which was a notable year with 66 total cases of indigenous dengue fever were recorded. In comparison, between 2010 and 2021, only 48 cases (total) were recorded.

What to expect for 2024

Experts believe that the number of cases in France, including indigenous ones, will grow this year, as tiger mosquitoes now occupy more territory in mainland France.

On top of that, the number of cases has increased significantly in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

“What we see in France is a mirror image of what is happening in the French Caribbean, and more widely in Latin America and the rest of the Caribbean, where dengue fever has been circulating since the start of the year at unprecedented levels”, the head of Santé Publique France, Dr Caroline Semaille, said during a press conference.

The Olympic Games will also bring an influx of tourists from all over the world, and weather conditions are expected to be conducive to mosquitoes – a year with a lot of rainfall, and potentially high temperatures. 

What is dengue fever?

The disease is spread to people from bites by infected mosquitoes.

The most common symptoms are high fever, chills, abdominal, joint and muscle pains, and vomiting. It can also cause a skin rash that resembles measles, according to France’s Institut Pasteur.

Symptoms usually begin three to 14 days (with an average of four to seven) after being bitten.

However people are asymptomatic in 50 to 90 percent of cases (depending on the epidemic), which can make monitoring difficult.

At-risk groups include the immunocompromised, children and the elderly, who are more likely to suffer from severe forms of the disease.

Deaths from the disease are very rare, occurring in around 0.01 percent of all cases, almost all in countries that have poor healthcare systems.

How can I avoid tiger mosquitoes?

Female tiger mosquitoes lay their eggs in water, and they can lay several hundred eggs at once. Therefore try to avoid having any standing water outside your home and be aware of the items that might collect rainwater.

This includes regularly emptying vases, flower pots, as well as watering cans and pots. If you want to collect rainwater, you could cover water butts with mosquito nets or fabric to keep the mosquitoes from getting inside.

READ ALSO 5 plants that (allegedly) repel mosquitoes

You can also keep your gutters clean – this helps to keep the water flowing when it rains, and it avoids any stagnant pools from building up.

To protect yourself, try to wear long, loose and light-coloured clothing, in addition to insect repellent. You might also consider wearing a mosquito net head gear.

The main difference between tiger mosquitoes and other species would be getting a bite during the day, and the fact that tiger mosquitoes are likely to bite several times. You can tell for sure if it was a tiger mosquito by seeing the insect itself. They are also silent.

There is no immediate cause for alarm if you are bitten, in almost all cases the bites are just itchy and annoying. In very rare cases, tropical diseases can be spread by the mosquitoes – seek medical help if you develop a high fever and rash.

READ MORE: How to prevent the spread of tiger mosquitoes in France

What do tiger mosquitoes look like?

They are very small, about 5 mm, and they have a highly contrasting colour, with black and white stripes on their body and legs.

If you believe you have spotted a tiger mosquito, you can report it to public health authorities online.

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