Anger grows in French coastal areas over continued Covid-19 beach ban

With just four days to go until France's expected easing of its coronavirus lockdown, pressure is mounting on the government to row back on its decision to keep beaches and coastal paths closed beyond 11 May.

Carnon beach near Montpellier, France AFP

Local Mayors and MPs have struggled to explain the decision and numerous campaigns including #RendezNousLaMer have sprung up on social media to get the decision overturned.

Gwendal Richard, a keen surfer, told French newspaper Ouest-France that the beach ban was “completely unjust”.

“All those who love the sea” are welcome to join him on nearby beach in Erquy to express their anger “peacefully” on 11 May, he says.

He’s calling on them to line up on the beach while respecting social distancing regulations and wearing facemasks and he plans to stream the event live on Facebook.

À gauche, le littoral en bas de chez moi le 15 mars dernier, jour des municipales.
À droite, un parc à Paris le même jour (photo Le Parisien).

Le 11 mai, les parcs rouvriront mais la côte sera toujours interdite d'accès à ses habitants. 🤔#RendezNousNosPlages#RendezNousLaMer🌊 pic.twitter.com/eQjY72JnRn

— Aurélien (@pivaurelien) May 3, 2020

Mayors sidelined

The leading international Yachtswoman Anne Quéméré is a vocal campaigner and she says she’ll be among those on the beach on Monday.

The navigator says people are safer outside in the open air than in confined spaces such as shops, which are set to reopen, and she told the newspaper the ban had no sound base, and was based on fear.

Quéméré wants local mayors, who know their areas to be authorized to decide which beaches open and which remain closed.

Laurent Peyrondet, Mayor of the Atlantic coastal town of Lacanau is annoyed that Mayors have been sidelined. “Local mayors area considered capable of deciding whether town markets should re open and told to manage somehow to reopen schools but when it comes to beaches, we are not allowed to have our say,” he commented.

Dozens of MPs for coastal areas are up in arms too. Liliana Tanguy, MP for the Brittany region of Finistère and a member of Emmanuel Macron’s LaREM party has called on the government to reconsider in a letter to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, signed by 60 MPs.

She maintains that opening up beaches now would allow people to adapt to social distancing rules at the sea, before the summer season.

Many are also puzzled that forests look set to be re opened in France, even in the “Red Zones” where the risk of Covid 19 is deemed higher, while beaches, often in the lower risk “Green Zones”, must remain closed.

But so far the government is standing firm.

Pressure cooker

Jean Castex, charged by the government with planning the lifting of lockdown restrictions, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that if beaches were re opened to the public “too many people would be tempted, leading to a further spread of the virus”.

Anne Quéméré reckons it would be better to open up the beaches now so that there isn’t a huge rush when they finally re open.

“If the government doesn’t move on this issue”, she tells Ouest-France, “the pressure cooker will explode.”