MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th April, 2020) France has failed to act quickly to fight the COVID-19 epidemic in the beginning, as it has proven to have no stock of basic medical protection equipment, such as masks or disposable gowns, the president of the French right-wing National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, told Sputnik on Friday.
"I think we faced a total unpreparedness, and given this unpreparedness the urgent decisions that needed to be made were not made. A lot of energy was spent trying to escape one's responsibilities, rather than to mitigate this unpreparedness. And this unpreparedness is incomprehensible, as there is a dozen of reports in the drawers of the French leaders containing plans for pandemics etc., but nothing was used. The absence of the stock of medical masks, the absence of mask production had serious consequences, because in fact its hampered the successful management of the first stage of the epidemic � testing, isolating those who tested positively and containing this epidemic. That's why we find ourselves in complete confinement facing the state fail: no masks, no tests, no disposable gowns, no anesthetics etc. It's not a situation for the seventh world power," Le Pen said.
The European Union has to rely heavily on Chinese assistance in dealing with the sanitary crisis, with major structures that were expected to be prepared to the epidemic failing to act on it, Le Pen went on to say.
"They've been trying to picture the EU to us as an industrial power ... but in fact Europe is completely dependent on China in all the major issues. I think this crisis is a real indicator а a terrible weakness of the European Union, which today is nothing more than gendarme, but not at all as a rescuer," Le Pen noted.
She slammed the EU authorities for the belated decision to close the borders.
"I called for the borders' closure on January 29 ... but the EU gave a signal to continue the circulation of people, and that contributed to the fact that the closure of the borders came late. And the structure that had to be present were absent. The EU platform for the preparation to the emerging pandemics [EU-funded Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-) emerging Epidemics (PREPARE)] proved inexistent," the politician said.
Le Pen added that the National Rally had been calling for increasing France's production capacities for years but had been only mocked for this.
"[French President Emmanuel] Macron just told us that we need to increase French production, that we need more sovereignty, but that's what we've been saying in the National Rally for years! But for that we were treated badly, we were mocked by those who today stand for our cause. Let it last, as long as there are actions behind the reassuring words that will allow our country to regain an essential part of its sovereignty," Le Pen said, asked whether she believed that Eurosceptics will strengthen their positions in Europe after the mismanagement of the pandemic.
The global COVID-19 case count has recently topped 1 million, with over 54,000 fatalities. France has recorded almost 60,000 cases so far.
