November 2nd French Prime Minister Jean Castelnau guest of French television on non-essential items has intensified shop for business to make a response, kept its blockade of non-essential items during the shop must close decision At the same time, the supermarket will be ordered to close the non-essential goods section.
According to a report by French TV, the French government required that non-essential shops must be closed after the lockdown was initiated on October 30, but in the past two days, bookstores, clothing stores, jewelry stores, toy stores, flower shops and other different industries that have been forced to be administratively closed The “non-essential” shops in China have protested, believing that the relevant products in the supermarket are still on sale, which is unfair.
In the past few days, some conflicts have broken out between Spain and Italy. This background has prompted the French government to be very cautious.
French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire and Minister of Culture Roselle Bachelot announced on the evening of October 30 that the book and stationery area of large supermarkets will be temporarily closed to safeguard the interests of bookstores that have been forced to close and maintain fair competition.
French Prime Minister Jean Castel further clarified on November 1 that the decision to close non-essential shops during the blockade will not change, and the government will spend additional funds to help the administratively closed shops tide over the difficulties.
If the epidemic situation permits, the government will relax restrictions on non-essential stores within 15 days, but now the primary task is to protect people’s health.
Jean Castel also announced that from the 3rd, supermarkets will be prohibited from selling non-essential goods to avoid unfair competition with non-essential stores.
He called on the French to abide by the rules, “The more we abide by the rules now, the sooner we can get rid of these constraints.”
French government spokesperson Gabriel Attar explained that the blockade is designed to prevent crowds from gathering.
Therefore, travel certificates must be obtained when going out. The government will check the reasons for going out. If no non-essential shops are closed, all institutions will remain open. It is impossible to check the outing situation.
The government hopes that the blockade will be a short-term measure that can quickly produce results.
The French Federation of Commerce and Large Sales Companies emphasized in a statement that the decision to close non-essential stores “lack of health reasons” and “will make the lives of the French people more difficult”, calling on the government to give priority to gradually reopening small shops through appointment. At the same time, strengthen the control of the passenger flow in the store.
The Mayor of Paris, Anna Hidalgo, also stated that she initiated a “joint initiative” with other cities, hoping to authorize the reopening of bookstores. “Culture is crucial. This is a wrong sacrifice.”
Some French cities have even issued decree in recent days to allow non-profits. Necessity shops opened during the lockdown. There are also some local governments that have not issued such laws, but at least they are reluctant to take sanctions. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire criticized this, condemning “a few irresponsible mayors who violated national decision-making”.
He said that these mayors “think they are supporting small businesses, but they are endangering the health of the French people.”
Bruno Le Maire said in an interview with BFM TV on November 1 that he understands the anger of businesses very well, especially when Christmas is approaching, when the shopping season has to be closed, this is a real blow, but the government does These closed companies provided huge financial support.
In this blockade, the French government has spent 15 billion euros to provide assistance to relevant enterprises. France has been responding and will continue to respond, which can avoid massive unemployment like the United States.
This proved to be effective. During the first round of blockade this spring, France kept the jobs of companies and employees, which enabled a strong economic recovery in the third quarter, an increase of 18.2%.
He explained that he hopes that as many stores as possible can reopen as soon as possible, the government will make new considerations on November 12, but the top priority is to restore fair competition between non-essential stores and large supermarkets.
The French Ministry of the Interior said that 250,000 police officers across the country performed inspection tasks during the blockade, and 24,000 municipal police officers distributed in 8,000 cities would also support this action. Stores that open their doors in violation of the rules will face a fine of 135 euros for the first time. If they violate the rules repeatedly, the fine may increase to thousands of euros.
From October 26 to November 1, France’s daily new patients were 26,771, 33,417, 36,437, 47,637, 49,215, 35,641, and 46,290. The total number of patients so far is 1413915, and the total number of deaths is 37,019. example.
French Minister of Health Olivier Velan warned that the goal of the lockdown is to create conditions for Christmas to relax restrictions as much as possible, shopping and family reunions as scheduled, but he thinks it is difficult to imagine a large celebration on New Year’s Eve on December 31 activity. According to European Radio One, in the worst case, the blockade measures may last from 8 to 12 weeks.
