In downtown Montauban, November 4, 2020. -

Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes

  • This Wednesday at midday, the city center of Montauban was very little animated, in full period of confinement.

  • Mayor Brigitte Barèges issued a decree, attacked by the prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne, to authorize all businesses to open.

  • Traders who remained open were fined.

As in other cities in France, the tension rose a notch at the end of last week in Montauban, between the mayor Les Républicains Brigitte Barèges and the prefect of Tarn-et-Garonne Pierre Besnard.

The elected representative drew a municipal decree to authorize the opening of “non-essential” businesses during season 2 of the confinement, and the representative of the State replied on the legal ground.

The administrative court is expected to rule on Friday.

In the meantime, this Wednesday noon, everything is very calm in the center of the city of Tontons Flingueurs, bathed in a chilly sun.

Excessively calm even.

Right in front of the town hall, the hairdresser has drawn the curtain, just like nearby Montauban Numismatique, despite the fleeting presence of the bosses Rose and Eric.

“We just came to do some paperwork, but we have been closed since Thursday,” explains the couple, who have been buying gold and silver for thirty years.

If on Friday, the administrative court's decision is favorable, we reopen immediately.

But in the meantime, we prefer to stay like that, rather than take a fine or risk administrative closure.

"

Calm reigns in the Place Nationale this Wednesday noon.

- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes

The episode of Saturday morning is still in the minds of all Montalbanese traders.

As in that of Christel (the first name has been changed), manager of a ready-to-wear boutique a stone's throw from the deserted arcades of the splendid Place Nationale, the historic heart of the city of 60,000 inhabitants.

The national police have cooled the ardor

“There were perhaps half of the independents who had opened, whether they were sellers of clothes, shoes, watches or accessories,” she says.

National police arrived about an hour later.

The police threatened us with administrative closure and fines.

We held on until noon and we closed because they went around all the businesses.

They could have left us until Saturday evening, to be confined from Sunday.

That way, we ended the month, it seemed more logical.

"

Many businesses have switched to dematerialized sales or to “click and collect”.

- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes

This Wednesday, as since the beginning of the week, Christel only went to the store for “click and collect” stories, which have become the norm in Montauban as elsewhere.

“We keep in touch with customers, but that does not compensate at all,” she observes.

A little further on, the Sac-ad leather goods brand is resisting, in accordance with the name of the street where it is located.

However, on the doorstep, her manager Delphine said she was "disgusted".

The mayor agrees to pay the fines

“The police came by this morning to give me a fine of 135 euros.

I'll stay open, but with a reservation system.

After Saturday's warning tour, officials sanctioned disregard for the ban on opening "non-essential" businesses.

The day before, Brigitte Barèges, whose municipal decree appears on certain windows, had toured the old center, and had undertaken to settle these famous fines.

Some streets in the center of Montauban are deserted, in full confinement.

- Nicolas Stival / 20 Minutes

Beyond the town hall-prefecture bickering, with Delphine as with many of her Montalbanese colleagues, it is incomprehension that dominates.

“When I welcome one or two people, sanitary distancing is respected.

We apply the protocol.

There are more risks in a shopping center!

The approach of Christmas - "it is 30% of my turnover" - and the vagueness on the real duration of the reconfinement accentuate the concern.

With one certainty: it is the behemoths of online sales that will take advantage of the situation.

Alongside the "non-essentials", grocery stores and other food stores can work without fear of a visit from the police.

This is the case in most of the rue du Greffe where there is a semblance of animation between butcher's shop, cheese factory and roaster.

"But that has nothing to do with usual, loose a professional of this artery which ends on the National Square.

If it's to stay open when there is nobody, because the majority of people are confined… ”

More generally, "essential" or not, traders in the center of Montauban have the feeling that their situation is getting worse year after year, as is the case in many medium-sized towns.

"There were the attacks, the" yellow vests ", the work, the first and now the second confinement, lists Christel in front of her ready-to-wear store.

But we are struggling!

"An intact determination that reflects in a last cry from the heart:" We must boycott Amazon!

".

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