“Is it really a confinement” ask the Belgians

Deconfined confinement. Last Friday, the Belgian government announced that it was going to set up a “last chance”, “more severe” containment to try to stem the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic which is hitting the country head-on. With an incidence rate among the highest in the world and more than 15,000 new contaminations per day, Belgium has been reconfigured since Monday for a period of six weeks. Report in Tournai, not far from the border with France, where residents are skeptical about the effectiveness of a device deemed too permissive.

To get to Tournai, we chose to take the national road which crosses the border just after Baisieux. The place is very well known to smokers, many tobacco shops having set up as soon as they enter Belgian territory. Unlike last March, there was no shadow of a police officer to control vehicles entering or leaving France. Another notable difference was that all the shops were open.

“There, it is not a confinement”

On this same national road, shortly before arriving in Tournai, we come across the Librairie des 3 Suisses. “Bookstores in Belgium sell newspapers and we are considered to be essential shops”, explains Frédéric, the manager. No sooner had the time to ask a question than a line of five or six customers formed. “It’s still calm and we hardly see any more French, they came to stock up last week,” continues the 48-year-old trader who also sells tobacco. There are so many shops open that one wonders if the entry into force of the lockdown has not been postponed. “I do not understand the logic of the government because there, it is not a confinement”, loose Frédéric.

In the center of Tournai, the Kruidvat supermarket welcomes its customers. “We had to close in March and we did not have confirmation of the opening until very late this time”, deplores Gaëlle, the manager. She also wonders about the effectiveness of the measures taken by the government: “In France, we stay at home, period. Here, you can go out and go wherever you want, ”she says. It is divided between the happiness of keeping a little freedom and the fear of the future: “If this is not enough to bring down the epidemic, we risk taking more for weeks or months”, she laments.

“We try to go out a bit but we avoid meeting up with friends”

If they can move wherever they want without having to justify themselves, the Belgians seem reasonable. There was also no crowd in the streets of Tournai on Tuesday. Nothing to do with the world that you can meet in Lille where you need a good reason, and a certificate, to be away from home. Belgium is still in the middle of the All Saints holidays, we meet two young people on the town hall square. “We’re bored a lot, we don’t do much except stay on the phone,” sighs Aline, 17. “We try to go out a little but we avoid meeting up with friends because some live with fragile people,” continues Mathéo, also 17 years old.

To get into the hard, you have to wait for the sun to go down. The various provinces have in fact maintained curfews, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Wallonia and from midnight to 5 a.m. in Flanders. “Suddenly, the real confinement only takes place at night,” quips the bookseller.