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France’s government announced on Tuesday relief measures for bars, cafes and restaurants that were forced to cut hours or close due to new Covid-19 restrictions. Angry owners denounced measures that they described as inconsistent and ineffective.
On Monday night, bars and cafes in Paris and 11 other French cities classified as “high risk” were forced to close at 10 pm due to new Covid-19 restrictions that were supposed to last at least two weeks.
Restaurants and bars have been ordered to close completely in the classified “highest risk” cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, where intensive care admissions are at the highest levels in the country.
The new measures have sparked protests and a lawsuit from angry owners and officials in France’s second-largest city since their announcement last week and represent a blow to an industry struggling after lockdown in early spring and a reduced tourist season. in summer.
“We have the impression that we are being punished,” says Rémi Halegua, director of The Shamrock, an Irish pub in the tourist district of the Old Port of Marseille that closed on Monday.
Halegua says the lockdown and cutbacks have already reduced business by 50 to 60 percent this year and wants the government to have considered other ways to ensure that health measures are respected.
“They could easily have left the outside terraces of bars and restaurants open and carried out more police checks. People are quite disciplined and I don’t see any problem on the terraces. “
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Marseille was not the only city where people were upset about restrictions.
Disgruntled owners and patrons left Paris bars at the request of police at 10 p.m. Monday, and restaurant and bar owners planned to demonstrate against the measures in the northern city of Lille on Tuesday night.
In response to the anger, French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire met with representatives of the hotel industry on Tuesday.
Castex announced on Twitter that the government would offer aid funds between 1,500 and 10,000 euros per month and full pay coverage for temporarily laid off staff until the end of the year.
Feeling of incoherence
But behind the new restrictions is a sense that the government has lost its way in dealing with the accelerating Covid epidemic.
“It is incoherent, because a third of the clusters are in schools and universities, another third in office buildings, but they decide to close restaurants and bars,” says Halegua. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
The closures also affect the cities of Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, but not the surrounding areas, despite being very close.
“Ten minutes from my house is my workplace, which is closed, and ten minutes in the other direction, I can go to a bar or restaurant,” explains Halegua. “It means that our clients will go where it is open and it is not far from the Old Port.”
Some cafes and bars in Marseille have chosen to break the rules and open anyway, despite risking 135 euro fines for defying the ban. But Halegua did not want to take that path.
“Everyone considered it, but we don’t want trouble with the law and we don’t want customers to get into trouble because of us,” he says. “We prefer to close and wait, and show that we respect the rules.”
