Paris (AFP)
"Emergency unit", "merchant solidarity fund" or increase in the "video protection device": the candidate invested by LREM in Paris, Benjamin Griveaux, promises on Tuesday a "Marshall plan" for merchants, "hard hit by the movement of yellow vests "and" strikes ".
"I no longer count the districts in Paris where businesses are disappearing," laments the former government spokesperson in an open letter to artisans and merchants in Paris, of which AFP has obtained a copy.
The candidate, placed in third position (15%) in an Ifop-Fiducial poll Sunday behind Anne Hidalgo (25%) and Rachida Dati (19%), wants a "commercial emergency unit under the authority of each mayor of district "to respond to traders" concretely and more quickly during periods of crisis ".
In addition, a "merchant solidarity fund", endowed with "15 to 20 million euros", will be set up to support professionals "in difficult times", and financed by the tourist tax spent "on one night hotel in a palace - beyond 5 stars - from 5 to 10 euros ".
Benjamin Griveaux also wants an increase in the "number of surface delivery places and close to shops", in "video protection", the pedestrianization of "a shopping street in each of the 240 districts", and leave "throughout Paris the possibility to open on Sunday ".
"Mayor of Paris, I will make the commitment that, in each district, the number of artisans (for example, bakers, cheese makers, fishmongers, crafts, etc.) and booksellers will increase between 2020 and 2026 ", he says in this letter which, at the bottom of the page, reminds citizens that they have until February 7 to register on the electoral lists.
Seduced by these proposals, the president of CPME Paris Ile-de France, Bernard Cohen-Hadad, joined the candidate for mayor of Paris, and became a running mate in the XVIth arrondissement.
"Benjamin Griveaux offers a + New Deal + for our shops in Paris", believes this trader, who also judges that "Paris is not a city + SME friendly +".
© 2020 AFP