Solène Leroux 3:01 p.m., January 02, 2022

As of tomorrow, the government will tighten access to concerts and other football matches.

For at least three weeks, the gauges are set at 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 outdoors.

But the nightclubs are once again closed.

And professionals in the sector understand less and less the reasons.

Almost 1,600 nightclubs will keep their doors closed for a minimum of three more weeks.

They closed on December 10, after several months without opening due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guest of

Europe Midi

this Sunday, Morgan Dalle spokesperson for the SOS collective Cafés, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs (CHRD) in distress hopes "to be able to open very soon, because if we are based on scientific texts, our openings are not at risk".

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All the more so since "a scientific study was carried out in October which concluded that discotheques are not more propagative places than other places" he recalls.

He denounces a certain hypocrisy, whereas for the New Year "the whole of France was a big disco, we saw a lot of parties, including that on the Champs Élysées".

This manager of a nightclub in Béthune in Pas-de-Calais "also recalls that since September, we have had zero clusters".

Political closures

Morgan Dalle "believes that nightclubs cannot have a big impact on epidemic waves, given that they only represent 1,300 establishments".

For comparison, France has "6,000 party rooms" and "200,000 bars, restaurants and other food activities" lists the manager.

For him, if the government chooses to close nightclubs, it is above all a "political agenda, rather than scientific facts".

Indeed, "it is easier to close 1,300 nightclubs and give the impression that we keep control of the Covid-19" rather than closing other establishments, at the risk of making a "less popular political decision" .

Demoralized operators

This situation weighs on the morale of nightclub owners.

It was "very difficult to close" recalls the spokesperson "after 16 months of closure and a reopening where they had to reinvest money".

For some, "being closed after two months" was experienced as "a second bankruptcy".

A closure "immediate and without any consultation" which is a "real contempt" according to Morgan Dalle.

"I do not think that we would have closed Amazon like that overnight on a snap of the fingers," he asserts at the microphone of Europe 1.

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"There is no consultation, a real contempt for our activity and more generally for the small employers."

Referring to the introduction of compulsory teleworking, he assures us that this measure will finish off his fellow cafeterias and restaurateurs since "at noon, they will not make cutlery".

The spokesperson also has a word for "mountain clubs who, during this season, while it is during this period that they make their margins to be able to survive the rest of the year".

A "very discriminatory" closure

According to Morgan Dalle, "all these measures are illogical" and the rest of the French population also feels it: "60% of French people responded to a survey saying that they did not understand the closure of nightclubs" he maintains . And to recall that the closing of nightclubs is "very discriminatory when we see that most places of debauchery are open".

The next fear of the middle of the night, "is that the 2G + pass arrives and is voted in haste", mentioning the possibility of a reinforced vaccination pass.

"So we realize that in England and South Africa, we are in the process of stopping the restrictions, and that Olivier Véran announces to us in the

Journal du Dimanche

that the last wave will probably be", says the manager.

And to conclude: "Isn't it time to have a public debate?"