INTERVIEW
Many small businesses, such as medium and large ones, are still suffering from government measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. And despite the measures decided to accompany them in these difficult times, such as the deferral of charges or loans guaranteed by the State, some have had to close down. According to François Asselin, president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME), these measures, if they were necessary, could have a much more perverse consequence in the medium term.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation
"What the government has done is up to what we had to do, but these are either load shifts or loans, and loans are reimbursed. So we pushed the pile of sand and at some point or another, it will be necessary to reimburse these discrepancies and to reimburse the loans ", warns François Asselin on Europe 1." When it will be necessary to pass to the reimbursement and that you will leave flushed with this crisis, it would be necessary to avoid that there is a second wave of failure because there, indeed, it will be very complicated to raise the economic head of our country. "
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: the French Academy has decided, it will now be necessary to say "the" Covid-19
> Coronavirus: is the second wave inevitable?
> Gatherings, trips, sport: what remains prohibited despite the deconfinement
> Deconfinement: what you need to know about returning to work
> Deconfinement: what hygiene for self-service bikes, scooters and scooters?
Eric's situation illustrates this fear of a second wave of business failures. This auditor of Europe 1, freelance worker, told on our antenna to have opened a martial arts room in Paris in July. He has no employees, but in the absence of revenue, his rent debt, very large in Paris, accumulates. Hence a dilemma: should we stop the costs now or try to wait until the situation returns to normal.
"He asks himself the question of stopping his activity before digging a hole that he will not be able to fill, or trying to grit his teeth to see if it passes. These are questions that all entrepreneurs ask themselves, that they may or may not have employees, "confirms François Asselin. "In the case of Eric, he has zero revenue, on the other hand his expenses have not stopped. This is what I told you. The day when it will be necessary to reimburse all this, even if you reopen, you may see that your business model did not hold water. So these are indeed very distressing situations. "
>> Watch Matthieu Belliard's morning show in replay and in podcast here
François Asselin therefore appeals to the authorities. "Where we have to be very vigilant is that companies that had a solid economic model before the crisis can continue to exist after this crisis. We call on the government to continue to support our businesses and entire sectors of our economy" , he launched.