The Council of State estimated Monday that the prolonged closing of the discotheques was not "disproportionate", rejecting an appeal of these to reopen their doors, if only by offering a bar service. The high administrative jurisdiction dismissed the National Union of Discotheques and Places of Leisure (SNDLL) of an application for interim measures against the government's decision to prolong the closing of the discotheques. The nightclubs were hoping to reopen on July 10, but the government has cited too great a risk of the new coronavirus being released.
"Half of the clubs will disappear"
"In view of the closed nature of the establishments in question, the nature of the physical activity of the dance and the difficulty of ensuring that the mask is worn or that the rules of social distancing are respected in a festive context, it does not appear not "that the operating ban issued by the government" is (...) disproportionate, "said the Council of State. "We let the bars do the nightclub but we refuse to discotheques the right to operate in bars," lamented SNDLL's lawyer, Me Henri de Beauregard.
>> READ ALSO - To reopen, the discos ready to give up ... on the dance floors
"At a time when stadiums, combat sports training halls are being reopened ... this decision also testifies to a form of distrust of discotheques", he regretted. "Half of the clubs will disappear", or about 800 nightclubs if a reopening is not decreed until September, for his part estimated on July 12 Matthieu Lebrun, spokesperson for the managers of nightclubs in Normandy, came to demonstrate with some 200 other professionals near the Ministry of Health, in the center of Paris.