Is this the reason Macron avoided a third Covid lockdown?

In these dreary days one of my few remaining distractions is perusing the readers’ comments at the foot of online articles about Covid in French newspapers. It’s like being ringside at a ferocious boxing bout. In the blue corner the Millennials, and in the red corner, the Soixante-Huitards, the 68ers, the French term for Baby Boomers. Neither generation is pulling their punches.

The Millennials are fed up with their sterile existence in which bars, restaurants, cinemas and theatres have been closed since October. Liberte! they cry. They’ve seen the stats, that of France’s 76,000 Covid deaths, the overwhelming majority are aged 65 or above; only 0.5 per cent are from the 15 to 44 demographic. Last week, the hashtag #JeNeMeConfineraiPas (I won’t be confined) trended on Twitter, and an op-ed in Les Echos from the Millennial philosopher Gaspard Koenig that lamented the emotional and economic effects of the restrictions went viral. There are many Millennials who think that any future lockdown should restrict the movements only of the old and the vulnerable.