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| - A wall of scepticism on Friday greeted a suggestion by Paris city hall for a three-week lockdown against the coronavirus to help restore normality in the French capital, with critics accusing Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo of a PR stunt. France has so far avoided a third lockdown to battle Covid-19 but, with case numbers starting to rise, the government of President Emmanuel Macron is beginning to impose restrictions on a local basis. Mayors do not have the power to impose lockdowns which must be approved by the government but Paris deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said a three-week measure would give "hope of everything reopening again" afterwards, including cafes and cultural establishments. "You can't force yourself to live in a semi-prison for months. Now you have to make courageous decisions," he told France Info radio on Thursday, adding that city hall would propose the measure to the government. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the idea would be studied but added there was little point having a lockdown for Paris alone given the numbers travelling in and out every day. Prime Minister Jean Castex scoffed at the idea of a shutdown of less than a month to restore normality, saying "you should not talk nonesense". "You heard the city hall of Paris say 'lock down for three weeks and it's finished'. But you know with the mutations and so forth it's not possible," he said at a hospital in the western city of Nantes. Right-wing critics also slammed the call as electioneering ahead of a possible presidential bid by Hidalgo next year. "Anne Hidalgo cannot use Parisians, play with their life and future, for the sake of PR stunts aimed above all at opposing Emmanuel Macron," the right-wing Change Paris group led by former minister Rachida Dati said in a statement. In new comments Friday, Gregoire appeared to row back on his earlier remarks, which he insisted were "an idea and not a proposal". The controversy comes after the French Riviera around Nice and the northern coastal city of Dunkirk -- two coronavirus hotspots -- were placed this week under weekend lockdown. Castex on Thursday placed 20 other territorial areas known as departments, including Paris and its suburbs, under "reinforced surveillance", meaning they too could soon be placed under partial lockdown. "The health situation in our country has got worse," he told reporters at a press conference late Thursday, saying that the figure of 31,000 daily infections recorded on Wednesday was the highest since November. He added that the more rapidly-spreading variant that originated in England now accounted for almost half of infections in France. Observers say Macron has gambled by resisting pressure for a third lockdown, with schools and non-essential businesses all open in contrast to France's neighbours, even if cafes remain shut. pyv-sjw/jh/har
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