All over France, showmen demonstrated on Wednesday May 19 to demand a rapid resumption of their activity, still stopped by the Covid-19 epidemic, while the prospect of a reopening on June 9 is emerging.
This day of mobilization had been planned for several days, while the profession had no prospect of reopening. But, on Tuesday, the government finally provided for a protocol relying on a resumption of funfairs from June 9, according to the president of the National Union of Fairground Industrialists, Nicolas Lemay. The fairgrounds have, however, decided to maintain their demonstrations in order to denounce what they consider to be discrimination compared to other sectors.
Nicolas Lemay thus estimated on France Bleu that the fairgrounds undergo ” commercial discrimination “ :
“May 19 was promised to us at the opening and, a few days before the opening, we were told that it was not possible. Not possible why? We do not know. “
Snail operations
In the Hérault, from the A9 motorway to the entrance to Sète, about fifty fairgrounds with their trucks interfered with traffic on Wednesday to demand authorization from the government to resume their activity. “Fairgrounds, paralyzed since last October, are still not authorized”, while the government has announced the resumption of activities for cafes, restaurants, cinemas, theaters, theaters, circuses …, lamented Stéphane Dubief, founding member of the Federation of fairgrounds of France, who was on site.
Other actions have taken place in France. In Orleans, a “Snail operation and free toll” was organized on the A10, from 8:30 a.m., according to France Bleu. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, several processions have significantly slowed down traffic on the A1 and A2 since early in the morning. In the East, between Nancy and Metz, nearly 25 trucks created severe slowdowns on the A31. On the A26, in the direction Reims-Calais, the disturbances spread over five kilometers.
On the A10, at the Virsac tollbooth, near Bordeaux, the fairgrounds blocked both directions of traffic, allowing vehicles to pass only in small quantities. The prefecture specifies that a “Thirty trucks and sixty people” slowed down traffic from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
In Brittany, according to the gendarmerie, the fairgrounds carried out a snail operation with 24 heavy goods vehicles on the RN 165, between Quimper and Lorient. They must have lunch in Lorient before returning to Quimper in the afternoon.
The Federation of Fairgrounds of France has announced that it has decided to appeal to the Council of State again “To enforce the ordinance of January 25, which was very clear, allowing fairground businesses to open under the same conditions as cultural activities, which is not currently the case”.
Many fairgrounds have expressed their despair at seeing their economic activity banned in the context of the health crisis. Many of them, among the small family businesses usually working from town to town, were not included in the compensation schemes at the start of the crisis and found themselves in extremely difficult situations.