On Thursday, publishers, writers and booksellers again called for the reopening of bookstores.

"We are not blind to the health drama that the country is going through. We just consider that the book is an exceptional product," explains the author Joann Sfar in particular.

But Prime Minister Jean Castex postponed this eventuality to a minimum at the beginning of December. 

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Booksellers will still have to wait.

Thursday, during a press conference, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced "the unchanged maintenance of the containment rules at least for the next 15 days", and referred a possible relaxation of the rules for businesses to December 1 "if the health situation is improving ".

Something to disappoint professionals in the book sector, many of whom were hoping for a quick reopening.

Several of them had also met Thursday in Paris for a symbolic action aboard a barge on the Seine.

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The reopening is what Jérôme Calais, bookseller, is calling for.

"A lot of my colleagues call me every day to ask me: 'So when do you think we will be able to reopen'", he says.

And to add: "In addition, we took a lot of measures. Everyone has their bottles of gel, everyone has their mask."

In turn, booksellers, publishers and authors took the floor.

"It is not possible that Emmanuel Macron finds it normal that there are tarpaulins on the books", proclaimed a participant.

"At one point, the job of a head of state is also to arbitrate between pressure groups. Let's be a pressure group for our culture."

"The book is not a product like any other"

Coming to support the initiative, the writer Joann Sfar "thinks that booksellers are right, the book is not a product like any other".

For the comic book author, "you can't survive without a book". 

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"I can see the mockery of people who say that we can do without books for a few weeks," he said again, before adding: "We are not blind to the health drama that the country is going through. just consider the book to be an exceptional product. "

The cruise ended with the arrival of the Paris police river brigade, who boarded the barge and checked the attestations of all passengers as they disembarked.