INTERVIEW
The coronavirus epidemic is straining the cultural sector: cancellations and postponements of cascading events, closure of museums and bookstores, not to mention the lingering doubt surrounding the holding of summer festivals. "The whole profession is worried," says actor Philippe Torreton, on Saturday at the microphone of Europe 1.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the situation on Saturday
Sponsor of the "Didascalies" festival, promoting the theater to high school students, he particularly regrets the forced closure of bookstores. "I think we shouldn't have closed the bookstores [...] I don't see why we should open a butcher's shop and not a bookshop." According to him, security measures in the transport of books and physical sale would have allowed to maintain a semblance of activity for the booksellers.
>> Find Fabienne Le Moal's midday journal in replay and podcast here
"We left Amazon a lot to conquer"
This state of affairs is all the more harmful since, at the same time, the American giant Amazon sees its activity grow significantly. "We left Amazon a piece of land to conquer, they did not deprive themselves of it," deplores the actor. Some employees also protested the working conditions in the warehouses.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Can France hope for a more favorable scenario than Italy?
> Are women and people with blood type O more resistant?
> Are certain serious forms linked to a genetic factor?
> How will the distribution of masks take place in France?
> Back to school on May 11: under what conditions?
> How to keep sleep during confinement?
If Philippe Torreton believes that the government has "taken the measure of the disaster", he evokes an "unprecedented crisis" for the cultural industry. "The entire performing arts sector will be impacted over the long term. It is worrying because we have never seen that."