Paris (AFP)

Several hundred VTC drivers demonstrated in Paris on Saturday against a plan by the town hall which would amount to prohibiting them from driving in the center of the capital, while taxis would remain authorized there, AFP journalists noted.

Gathered in front of the Bercy auditorium - where the mayor (PS) Anne Hidalgo was to come to attend the "test concert" of the Indochine group -, the participants raised banners proclaiming "Access prohibited VTC, no discrimination", and chanted slogans like "No to the death of independents", or "Angry VTC"!

Prohibiting VTC access to the center of Paris, which "brings together 300 hotels, 2,000 restaurants, 150,000 residents, 50,000 companies, 40 museums and many theaters", amounts to "condemning them definitively to certain death", fears the Intersyndicale national VTC (INV), which had called for this demonstration.

According to the organizers, demonstrators had come from all over France to support their colleagues from Ile-de-France, which has more than 30,000 VTC drivers.

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In addition to the traffic restrictions in Paris, the drivers also intended to protest against the "disastrous pricing policy orchestrated by digital platforms", and against the government's desire to gradually end its post-Covid support measures, said Brahim Ben Ali, the general secretary of the INV.

Until now, VTC drivers could benefit from the solidarity fund up to 100% of their 2019 turnover, but from Tuesday 1 June, this support must increase to 40% of turnover.

"The problem is that only the terraces have reopened. The tourists are not back, the nightclubs still closed: we are still impacted by the Covid and we cannot generate a turnover that would allow us to pay our charges ", explained Rachid Laddi, another person in charge of the INV.

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"We are asking the government to extend the solidarity fund to 100% for at least the summer period," he added.

Another collective, the VTC de France association, called for another demonstration on the same demands near the Roland-Garros stadium in Paris on Sunday, the opening day of the international tennis tournament.

© 2021 AFP