Police raid French health minister’s home and office over Covid negligence claims

Police raided the home and offices of French health minister Olivier Veran

Credit:  REUTERS

Police on Thursday raided the homes and offices of France’s health minister, former prime minister, and its public health director as part of an investigation into multiple complaints that its reaction to the Covid outbreak was slow and inadequate.

News of the raids broke just hours after President Emmanuel Macron imposed a 9pm curfew on a third of the French population over nine cities, including Paris, in a bid to flatten the surging second wave of the deadly viral epidemic. Private groups are restricted to six people and private events, including weddings, are banned throughout the country.

Besides health minister Olivier Veran and public health director Jerome Salomon, Mr Veran’s predecessor Agnes Buzyn, former prime minister Edouard Philippe and former government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye were also targeted by the raids.

They came after the Law Court of the Republic — a special tribunal created to try cases of ministerial misconduct — launched a judicial investigation in July into whether French leaders were guilty of a "lack of will to fight a disaster” following 90 separate complaints by doctors, local authorities and nursing homes.

Mr Salomon abruptly canceled an early-morning live interview on the national BFMTV due to "personal reasons," according to the network.

The health ministry said the searches were conducted in a calm and “courteous” manner. The office of Mr Philippe, who stepped down as prime minister in July, to reclaim his post as mayor of Le Havre, northern France, said he had “always said he is at the disposal of the justice system”.

French former mrime minister Edouard Philippe was among those targetted by police raids

Credit:  BERTRAND GUAY/AFP

Plaintiffs welcomed the spectacular raids.

Arié Allimi, a lawyer for Inter-Urgences, an association representing emergency care workers and civil plaintiff, said: “The reason for this complaint is to say that the government didn’t enable health workers to protect themselves from this disease that they knew was coming and the means required to do so."

He said some of the complaints could lead to criminal charges.

“A certain number of health workers were contaminated, some have long-lasting scars and others have died following Covid contamination. You also know that a large number of health workers didn’t have access to the necessary equipment to protect themselves despite being in contact with contaminated people — notably masques and blouses.”

C19, a doctors’ group, said they had pressed for charges due to “the incoherence of measures” by the government and “the absence of application of WHO recommendations”.

However, many French politicians found the timing of the raids inappropriate just as Paris and eight other cities have been told they face 9pm to 6pm curfews starting from Saturday.

Scores of French health workers and former Covid patients have filed legal complaints against the government's Covid policies

Credit:  Jean-Francois Badias/AP

At around 20,000, daily new infections are increasing at a record rate, putting a fresh strain on the hospital system. The virus has killed more than 33,000 people to date in France, the ninth-highest tally in the world.

Jean-Luc Reitzer, an opposition member of the French parliament who was hospitalised with a severe case of coronavirus, said he was shocked by the searches.

"Do our citizens seriously believe that the shortages, which were real, were voluntary?" he told BFM.

Jean-Christophe Lagarde of the centrist UDI party said: “This is not urgent today. We need to fight against the second wave and I’m not convinced we should waste time with this.”

He added that he didn’t believe in “ministers being criminally responsible in this case”.

Far-Right MP Gilbert Collard called the searches “a real declaration of war by justice to political powers”.

But Marie-Christine Verdier-Jouclas, MP for Mr Macron’s ruling LREM party, said it was “normal procedure” and “prove that there is no two-speed justice system”.

Other investigations are underway. In Paris, prosecutors have launched a preliminary probe into “manslaughter” and “endangering the lives of others”.

Meanwhile, current prime minister Jean Castex is the subject of a complaint from Victimes Coronavirus France, a group of 200 civil plaintiffs who accuse the government of “flying blind” in the current epidemic.  

Edouard Philippe’s office did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.