“We are killing local commerce”: the president of CCI France calls for “a break” from demonstrations because traders lose “2% of annual turnover every weekend”

The president of the network of chambers of commerce and industry in France (CCI France) deplored this Monday that traders were "not able to work" during the new day of social mobilization on Saturday and called for "a pause" in demonstrations during the "crucial period" at the end of the year. Despite a "form of relief" after a calmer than expected weekend, Alain Di Crescenzo regretted on Radio Classique "around fifty businesses broken" and "around 80% drop in activity", a number of traders having "played it safe" by remaining closed after the violence of October 17. “We have traders who are tired, who are disappointed, and we are killing local commerce,” he said, recalling that “40% of turnover occurs between November and December”.

410,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior “Every weekend, approximately 2% of the annual turnover leaves,” he maintained. 630 businesses are still closed out of the 2.

201 broken on October 17, according to the CCI France count. “Is it going to reopen? (...

) We have to ask ourselves the question because if there are demonstrations every weekend, it is unimaginable that a merchant would repair his store only to be broken the following week." "That's why we need to reassure, and that's why we also need to have a break in these demonstrations," he said, whether through a "change of route" or a "ban", "but we need a break. “The mobilization remained strong for this second Saturday with 410.

000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior, compared to 550,000 a week earlier, and 800,000 according to the CGT, as many as on October 17.

New calls for demonstrations have been launched for the coming weekends, and employee unions are mobilizing for a national day of strikes and demonstrations on November 5.

Machine-translated from French