This time, we must act quickly. Our meeting has been postponed several times, but this Saturday Véronique de Viguerie finish preparing his business by answering our questions before going to the train station… in Mulhouse. Normally, this multi-award winning war reporter ( Visa d’or Paris Match News, Humanitarian Gold Visa of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Visa pour l’image 2018 for its report on the war in Yemen, World Press Photo, Bayeux-Calvados Prize for war correspondents, Canon Prize… ) instead jump on a plane to go home. “I don’t work much in France. I came to Mulhouse for two days at the very beginning of the pandemic, for the magazine She. But I was frustrated. So I decided to come back a week for my agency Getty Images. “
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“Just the ambulance ballet and the helicopter rotations”
From Mulhouse and the East, the one who worked in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq … admits to knowing nothing. “This is the first time I have come here. And my first impression was very strange, when I arrived on Sunday (note: March 29). Life seemed to have stopped, while in Paris we were just beginning to enter containment. Here it was deserted, silent, with just the ballet of the ambulances and the rotations of the helicopters. This virus is a completely invisible, almost abstract enemy. Véronique de Viguerie then rushes to Mulhouse hospital, which has become the center of interest for all French and foreign media. Again with a strange impression, not too reassuring. “We did not have gloves, for the masks we managed with what we had, we tinkered. Did I get the virus? I don’t know, I haven’t been tested. This is new to me. When I come back from Afghanistan, it’s easier. It’s finish. There, I come back to Paris and I cannot see my two little girls who are with their dad, for fear of contaminating them. Put myself in danger, I know, I manage. But putting others in danger because of a report is a feeling I have never had. “
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“Journalists are not respected”
Before Mulhouse, Véronique de Viguerie came back from Brazil where she “covered” the fight of the Indians to preserve their territory. And there too, she quickly returned to earth. “It’s weird to work in France. It gets very complicated. People are hyper-wary of the press. Just an example: when the first medical train left Mulhouse , we were put aside. Police even blocked our access to the station walkway to take pictures of the train. With Darek Szuster (the photographer of Alsace ) we did not bother anyone, did not present any danger to the sick. The authorities only want to work with a few journalists – often television crews – who provide their communication. It’s disgusting. In France, journalists are not respected by the institutions. There was the spirit Charlie Hebdo , but since… “
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“The world is in pause mode”
If the functioning of the authorities annoys the one who is used to working with the Taliban, the women of the PKK or the Philippine police, she will remain marked by the inhabitants of the city “the kindness of the staff of the Bristol hotel who welcomed us, the Mulhouse firefighters, ultra-warm, the bereaved families, the priests “and above all” the funeral advisers like Jérémy Walter in Cernay. They opened their doors to us, welcomed without barriers, without trying to influence us. They are on the front lines, always in the shadows, with little protection. Funeral technicians, gravediggers are the dark side of this crisis. I learned a lot from them. “
In Paris, Véronique de Viguerie will now find “her feather sister”, Manon Quérouil-Bruneel , to work in 93, to see how a suburb is organized. “I would like to go back to Afghanistan, to find out how the Taliban is handling this crisis, to the Philippines where the authorities authorize the police to shoot those who do not respect confinement. Take a world tour of the coronavirus. The current world is in pause mode. Is it still fascinating? “
SEE Véronique de Viguerie’s news on her site https://veroniquedeviguerie.com
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