Spain and Portugal "are countries that relaxed the rules at the borders, in particular with the United Kingdom, long before us", said Attal, in an interview with France Inter, adding that the French government was censored for this. According to Attal, "France has a framework of restrictions on its borders that is one of the strictest in Europe."

Paris requires a quarantine, in some cases under the control of the authorities, of travellers from many countries outside the European Union. Those traveling from the UK must present a certificate of vaccination and a negative test (PCR or antigens), with the unvaccinated being required to have a “overriding reason” for travel and a negative test and on arrival in France another test and a seven-day quarantine. Attal admitted that a new epidemic wave in France at the end of July was “a possibility”, given the expansion of the Delta variant, which is more contagious and whose presence doubles every week, already responsible for 30 percent of new infections.

That hypothesis, he said, is particularly credible when you look at what is happening in other European countries, such as the UK, Portugal, Russia or Spain. In France, the incidence of Covid-19 has dropped five days ago and has been rising, according to Spanish news agency Efe. In Spain, the incidence of the disease on 18 June was 96 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and on 2 July, the accumulated incidence over 14 days already exceeded 150 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. As for Portugal, on 18 June the accumulated incidence over 14 days was between 60 and 119.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while on 4 July it was 189.4 cases per 100,000 people.