In Europe, politicians celebrate restoring normalcy for citizens.

In large European countries, centrist politicians believe that, as epidemiological conditions improve, coronavirus measures should ease.

From Monday, October 11th, primary school children in the majority of France’s departments — 68 of them — won’t have to mask. These are departments where the transmission rate has been below 50/100,000 for 5 consecutive days. On the map below, the dark green departments are where the obligation to mask at primary school will be lifted from Monday and the light green departments are where it was lifted on October 4th.

This might be surprising for some Americans to see, but centrist politicians in France — including this member of parliament from French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist La République En Marche! party — treat easing coronavirus measures as a win, not a political liability.