these mayors who defy the ban on closing businesses

Valence, Yssingeaux, Perpignan, Béziers … The list is growing rapidly, hour by hour this Saturday, of mayors having decided to stand up to the government. Since Friday, the first day of the reconfinement, more and more local elected officials have in fact signed orders authorizing non-food or “non-essential” businesses to remain open in their communities. These orders are immediately declared illegal by the prefectures, but the arm wrestling promises to be tense between mayors and government.

Unfair competition and death of city centers

One of the first to have opened the sling, it is François Boucher, the LR mayor of Migennes, a small town of nearly 7,000 inhabitants in the Yonne. Thursday it signed a municipal decree to authorize the opening of non-food stores until _ “_until equal treatment is restored […] between large surfaces outside the city “ who can still sell everything and the small shops in the city center that risk closing in the face of this “unfair competition”.

Hunger strike and petitions

These arguments have been taken up by other mayors since, but also by other elected officials, as in Mayenne where the elected officials of the Department wrote to the government to “demand the reopening of local shops”. Same thing in Loiret or in Doubs, or in Dole, in Jura, where the mayors are also calling on the government. In Yonne again, the CPME (Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) has launched a petition asking “the reopening of local shops”. In Vendée, the Vendée senator Les Républicains, Bruno Retailleau, for his part, launched a petition for the opening of local shops.

Finally, in Haut-Rhin, a shopkeeper has gone on hunger strike to denounce the injustice of the reconfinement vis-à-vis small businesses. This Saturday, October 31, traders demonstrated to denounce the closure of their stores, as in Chambéry, Savoie, Saint-Malo, Ille-et-Vilaine, Abbeville, Picardy, or even in Ardèche where traders and elected officials demonstrated side by side.

In addition, other voices were raised in the weekend, Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris who promises to commit to leaving the bookstores open, or the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, who called this Sunday the government to support small businesses.

Already on Friday, the government gave in to the controversy by announcing the closure of the book and culture departments of supermarkets and specialized food stores by “concern for equity between supermarkets and independent bookstores“.

Recourse envisaged before the Council of State and open letter

On Monday, the mayor of Orange, Jacques Bompard, said he was considering an appeal to the Council of State, the only one empowered to break a national decree, in this case the one which requires the closure of small businesses during confinement.

Mayors and parliamentarians of Seine-Maritime signed an open letter on Monday, addressed to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic, for “warn of the fate of businesses classified as non-essential“. This new confinement could therefore be”fatal“to some, say the signatories.

France Bleu draws up the list of municipalities where mayors and local elected representatives protest against its closures.

• Abbeville, in the Somme
• Albi, in the Tarn
• Argentan, in the Orne
• Argenton-sur-Creuse, in the Creuse
• Aubusson, in the Creuse
• Audincourt, in the Doubs
• Barneville-Carteret, in the Manche
• Beaune, in Côte-d’Or
• Béziers, in the Hérault
• Bourg Achard, in the Eure
• Bressuire, in Deux-Sèvres
• Brive-la-Gaillarde, in Corrèze
• Cerizay, in Deux-Sèvres
• Chalon-sur-Saône, in Saône-et-Loire
• Charleval, in the Eure
• Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur, in Côte-d’Or
• Claira, in the Pyrénées-Orientales
• Colmar, in the Haut-Rhin
• Décize, in the Nièvre
• Dijon, in Côte-d’Or, the mayor wants to take a decree only to reopen bookstores
• Evreux, in the Eure
• Faches-Thumesnil, in the North
• Fresnay-sur-Sarthe, in the Sarthe
• Guéméné-sur-Scorff, in Morbihan
• Ille-sur-Têt, in the Pyrénées-Orientales
• La Grigonnais, in Loire-Atlantique, the mayor issued a municipal decree authorizing the opening of the hairdresser
• La Souterraine, in the Creuse
• La Teste-de-Buch, in the Gironde
• Les Abrets-en-Dauphiné, in Isère
• Les Herbiers, in Vendée
• Longwy, in Meurthe-et-Moselle
• Loriol, in the Drôme
• Malemort-sur-Corrèze, in Corrèze
• Mazamet, in the Tarn
• Mauléon, in Deux-Sèvres
• Migennes, in the Yonne
• Moncoutant, in Deux-Sèvres
• Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne
• Mont-de-Marsan, in the Landes
• Nueil-les-Aubiers, in Deux-Sèvres
• Paris, where Anne Hidalgo is committed to the reopening of independent bookstores
• Perpignan, in the Pyrénées-Orientales
• Pia, in the Pyrénées-Orientales
• Ribérac, in Dordogne
• Rochefort, in Charente-Maritime
• Romans-sur-Isère, in the Drôme
• Rodez, in Aveyron
• Saint-Calais, in the Sarthe
• Saint-Jouin-Bruneval, in Seine-Maritime
• Saint-Sever, in the Landes
• Sully-sur-Loire, in the Loiret
• Toul, in Meurthe-et-Moselle
• Valence, in the Drôme
• Vern-sur-Seiche, in Ille-et-Vilaine
• Villeneuve-Loubet, in the Alpes Maritimes
• Yerres, in Essonne
• Yssingeaux, in Haute-Loire

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