Tears well up in his eyes. For three generations that Agnès’ family has run the Richelieu shoe store, she fears that she will be the one who will close the store. “I am discouraged, exhausted. Traders are in agony. Filing for bankruptcy is at the end of the year,” Agnès told Jean-Luc Chauvin, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who came to take a tour of downtown Marseille and bring its support for traders. The boss of the CCI estimates that “about 400” the number of businesses degraded and / or looted in Marseille by the riots of recent days following the death of Nahel, according to the data sent to him.
If some looting took place on the outskirts, most were in the hypercentre, in a triangle contained between rue Paradis, la Canebière and Belsunce. Many of these shops kept their curtains drawn on Monday. Or rather OSB planks, these chipboard panels, nailed. Because it’s Monday, and in Provence, shops are often closed on Mondays. But especially the time that the craftsmen come to do the repairs and the time that the urban violence also calms down.
Adam, manager of the Orange Canebière store avoided the worst: “We barricaded the store on Friday. The guys have finished mounting the last boards under the riots. A precaution that the neighboring shops of Free and Bouygues had probably not taken. “They are closed until July 15. Just like the other Orange stores in Joliette and Bonneveine, the last of which was “attacked with a grinder”. Adam plans to “keep on a bit more” of his wooden protections, although the situation has calmed down slightly over the past two days. The manager of Dakao, an Asian restaurant, has consolidated one of his doors with his stock of rice bags, in trench sandbag mode. “They came in and stole a few things from me in the kitchen, but especially the cash drawer and the safe. Finally, I had taken the recipe so it’s still going, ”he testifies.
“I’m not going to cry, I cry when there are deaths”
On a street perpendicular to rue de Rome, an Italian tailor continues to work despite the gaping hole in his window. He has restored some semblance of order to his store. A plastic bin is full of shards of glass. “They were able to take only what was on the six mannequins accessible through the iron curtain which held firm. Finally, it’s still sets of costumes between 1,000 and 1,500 euros, ”says Gilles who collected some remains of mannequins, like here a leg which seems to have been used as a projectile on the police. He has just returned from the Noailles police station where he went to file a complaint.
In front of this same police station, we find the owner of a tobacco shop. “They smashed everything and took it away,” he explains while waiting for his appointment to file a complaint in turn. “If I am disgusted? Ah, it’s okay, I’m not going to cry. Me, I cry when there are deaths”, expresses this tradesman in a surge of understanding.
Payment of 10,000 euros within fifteen days without criteria
More broadly, this series of riots and looting comes for traders to extend a black series that has lasted for almost five years. Between the “yellow vests”, the Covid-19, the demonstrations against pensions and now the riots, “I am at the end of my strength”, adds Agnès. “We take everything in the face and no one helps us. We can no longer continue to work with the demonstrations that pass all the time, the rise in rents and the insane charges, ”she continues as a craftsman truck “Miroiterie de Marseille” passes by.
To deal with the most urgent, the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region has launched a support fund with the metropolis endowed with 10 million euros and fed 50-50. It must make it possible to pay 10,000 euros within two weeks, without criteria. The town hall has also announced the mobilization of two million euros, in particular to help replace broken windows or to help trade associations.