Lunchtime News Thursday 8th April 2021

News

French President to announce the end of ENA - According to French media Emmanuel Macron has decided to abolish the National School of Administration (ENA). A decision which is expected to be announced this afternoon to "managers of the public service, that is to say the 200 to 500 most senior French officials". The Head of State had made the promise during the "yellow vests" crisis. The ENA has been training the elite of the French senior civil service since 1945. The institution will disappear to make way for a new school, with a wider recruitment with the aim to attract more diverse profiles from universities and not just Sciences Po.

French Open postponed - The French Open has been postponed by a week in the hope that more spectators will be permitted to attend. The Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros will now run from 30 May to 13 June with qualifying the week before. The French Tennis Federation (FFT) said postponing was the "best solution".

AstraZeneca vaccine - The update by the European Medicines Agency given at a press conference on Wednesday has declared that while it’s acknowledged that there is a "possible link" between the AstraZeneca vaccine and very rare cases of thrombosis, the agency reaffirms that the “benefits of the vaccine remain greater than the risks”. The agency also indicated that cases of blood clots have also been observed after the administration of other anti-Covid vaccines approved in the European Union, without a proven link at this stage.

Vaccinations in Nice - In a press release published on Wednesday, Nice city council has said that tomorrow Friday 9th April, 5,000 vaccinations are planned to be administered in 24 hours at the city’s exhibition center making it "the only centre in France to offer such a vaccine capacity". The mayor Christian Estrosi has said that “the goal is not to break records but to speed up the vaccination campaign” adding that "thanks to the arrival of vaccines and a reorganization of the administration," the exhibition center could well become “France’s number one vaccination centre”. The Stade de France, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), which opened its doors on Tuesday April 6th has set a target of 10,000 vaccinations, but per week.

Poll - According to our new Elabe poll "L'Opinion en direct", a majority of French people expect neither places of culture nor restaurants to reopen in mid-May and a large majority of the population intends to respect the travel limitations in place over the next few weeks.