Bayonne (AFP)
Close to Biarritz, where the G7 opens on Saturday, the city of Bayonne barricaded Friday, deserted by tourists and walkers, for fear of potentially violent rallies of opponents anti-summit, defying the prohibition to demonstrate .
In the streets of the city center, the whirring of the screwdrivers fixing wood panels on the windows of the shops was incessant in the morning.
On the main square of Les Halles, where some terraces are still out, almost all businesses have already drawn the curtain. And in front of a real estate agency, two craftsmen cover the window of wooden protections.
"We do the same thing for the Bayonne Festival" (festive gathering of one million people over five days in late July, Ed), smiles Bérengère, an employee. "We do not know what is going to happen, there are precautions that have been taken, and we protect ourselves because the insurers believe that we have been sufficiently warned in the event of damage."
A letter from the town hall of Bayonne was sent Thursday to all merchants of the city, to inform them that "various national and international organizations have called for demonstrations Saturday and Sunday, including Bayonne and Anglet", neighboring cities, including the centers are located 8 and 4 km respectively from the Hotel du Palais Biarritz, which will host leaders of the G7.
On the banks of the Nive, a river that bisects the city of Bayonne (50,000 inhabitants), gendarmerie and police forces have taken their posts and provide controls. Thirty "voltigeurs", squad of ultra-mobile motorcycle police officers, criss-cross the streets of Petit Bayonne, under the incredulous eyes of passers-by.
Some, however, do not want to fall into "psychosis" of possible overflows over the weekend.
"If it happens, it happens, we can not do anything," said Pierre Burette, co-manager of a snack nearby the real estate agency. "Tomorrow, my clients, it will be either protesters or policemen," laughs the trader who ensures that the day before "35 or 40% of the clientele was composed of police!" He will be one of the few shops open in Bayonne for this G7 weekend.
© 2019 AFP