For the past few days, several Internet users have been relaying an alarmist message on messaging groups such as Telegram. “The German authorities are advising German citizens to stock up on enough food and medicine for 10 days. A list of basic necessities has been drawn up: 20 liters of water, 3.5 kilograms of cereals, pasta, potatoes and rice, peas, fruit and nuts, milk, fish, eggs…” Almost all of these messages conclude with a call to the French to follow this recommendation.
As proof, the message directs the reader to an interview in German with Nancy Faeser, the German Minister of the Interior. Equally worrying, other Internet users throw a few drops of oil on the fire by replying that the German government is acting in this way because something could happen, without specifying what it could be.
FAKE OFF
Nancy Faeser’s interview was given to the news site Handelsblatt on May 1, 2022. The minister, appointed last December, is questioned on a range of subjects, starting with the war in Ukraine. Over the course of his answers, the discussion turns to Civil Security. Regretting that civil protection has been “dismantled” for 16 years, Nancy Faeser explains that she wants to improve its capacities, not only because of the conflict in Ukraine, but also because of pandemics and the consequences of climate change, including the catastrophic flooding of July 2021 in the Ahr Valley. The minister then adds that she wants to check civil protection measures, on technical issues, but also on stocks of food, medicine and medical supplies.
It is at this time that the link is made with the viral message found on the messaging system. The minister is questioned about the recommendations of her predecessor Thomas de Maizière who had launched a defense plan in the event of an attack on German territory, notably advising citizens to stock up on water. This measure had been widely criticized across the Rhine, the minister was then accused of fueling fears.
Nancy Faeser kicks slightly into touch and sends her interlocutors to the Bundesamt für Bevolkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe (Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance) which published a manual of prevention and good gestures in the event of an emergency. It is in this manual that we find the quantities of water and other food that it may be useful to keep at home in the event of a disaster.
But above all, the minister is only talking about a list “that makes sense”, without directly calling on German citizens to follow these recommendations and above all, without giving it a necessary and urgent dimension, contrary to what previous messages might suggest. cited.
And in France ?
Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Agriculture, Civil Protection… All the institutions questioned by 20 minutes are not aware of such an official list distributed in France. If the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie has been saying since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine that “there is no risk of shortage in France because our agriculture is strong, solid and sovereign”, a source at the ministry specifies that t would be “not crazy to make some provisions in certain regions at risk of flooding, for example”. But this same source adds that a call for stocks, even minor ones, could lead to “stock-outs of opportunities as we saw during the first confinement”.
If it is therefore not necessary to rush to supermarkets to stock up, the government site offers an example emergency kituseful in the event of a disaster.
