Bayonnais traders alerted to their situation on Wednesday, demonstrating in front of the sub-prefecture.

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GAIZKA IROZ / AFP

  • Managers of so-called “non-essential” businesses in the Basque Country demonstrated on Wednesday to ask to reopen.

  • They ask to be able to resume their activity, as the Christmas holidays approach, explaining that the survival of their businesses depends on it.

"Non-essential", the formula does not pass with the more than 500 traders from different cities of the Basque Country, such as Bayonne, Biarritz or Saint-Jean-de-Luz mobilized this Wednesday in front of the sub-prefecture of Bayonne.

They want to reopen "as quickly as possible" after being forced to lower the curtain during confinement.

“We don't want the Covid to kill us in another way,” said Catherine Gueguen, manager of a cosmetics brand in Anglet.

All of them have Christmas time in their sights.

"Our stocks are ready, we have everything in before containment, we will file for bankruptcy if we are not allowed to work", according to the trader.

"We just want to work"

“We are being told about digitization, but it is for tomorrow.

We are dying today, ”said Georges Strullu, head of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CGPME) which, like all the demonstrators, targets online sales platforms.

For those who have been able to set it up, the "click and collect" will not solve everything.

"It's sprinkling, it will save us 10% at best", regrets Catherine Gueguen.

"We do not ask for help for the Internet, we will never achieve what large groups do, we just want to work," added Peio Guelot, manager of a household appliance store in the interior. .

“Our stores are what makes the diversity and the territorial network!

", he added.

"Loans are very nice, but you have to repay them"

Many demonstrators said they were "sacrificed", and uncertain about what will come next.

"Under what conditions are we going to be deconfined?

How can we resume?

What will happen in the event of a third or fourth confinement?

"Asked Serge Istèque, representative of traders from Biarritz who regrets" that no lesson has been learned from the first confinement ".

For Marie Jimenez, at the head of a beauty shop, the promises of aid and support from the State are not enough either.

She prefers "rather to work".

“Loans are very nice, but you have to pay them back.

I prefer to remain independent, as I always have been, ”she said.

Hard hit in the spring, many merchants entered with apprehension in this new putting under cover despite an easing which allows them to remain open for the withdrawal of orders in store.

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  • Aquitaine

  • Pays Basque

  • Demonstration

  • Bayonne

  • Trade

  • Society