Bruno Le Maire has been the Minister of the Economy since May 2017. -

Insidefoto / Sipa USA / SIPA

The florists authorized to open because it is spring, the chocolatiers because it is Easter: the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire this Saturday defended the government's reconfinement strategy, the "tailor-made" intended to "preserve maximum activity ”.

"I am trying to open as many shops as possible despite everything because it contributes not only to economic activity, but to the morale of the French," said the minister on France Inter, while 90,000 shops must lower the curtain this Saturday in 16 departments, including those of Ile-de-France.

“Why florists?

Because they sell almost half of their stock at spring time.

Why chocolate makers?

Because we have Easter coming and they make a very large part of their turnover in that period […] Why car dealerships?

Because behind, there are tens of thousands of workers who are concerned ”justified Bruno Le Maire.

“We are tailor-made;

I do not at all claim that it is ideal, but each time it corresponds to a simple logic: guaranteeing health security for the French while preserving economic activity and shops as much as possible ”.

A solution next week for clothing stores

Regarding clothing stores, the minister said he had asked the minister delegate for SMEs Alain Griset "to find a solution by next week to deal with clothing stocks".

He also announced full coverage of fixed costs (such as rents) for entrepreneurs who took over a business in 2020, “have made investments”, but “'still have not reopened” and cannot therefore justify a turnover giving them the right to such aid.

The president of Medef denounced this Saturday a "relentlessness against businesses" reproaching in particular the government to incriminate them as being places of contamination.

"It comes far behind families, businesses, relatives," he said Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux on Europe 1 while conceding that there was "progress to be made at the time of the restoration".

Regarding the criteria for closure, "bureaucratic madness will be put back in place as in November," he further estimated.

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