This is a cry from the president of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region, Laurent Wauquiez, and other elected officials or professionals in a forum * published by our colleagues from the JDD.
“Mr. President of the Republic, do not kill the French mountain!
“, They write to ask Emmanuel Macron to reopen the ski lifts in December.
Prime Minister Jean Castex indeed announced last Thursday that mountain resorts would be open, but not ski lifts.
Although recording a drop in the incidence of the coronavirus, Haute-Savoie and Savoie remain the two departments most affected by the epidemic.
In early February, the Haut-Savoyarde resort of Contamines-Montjoie recorded one of the first clusters of the epidemic in a British family who had stayed in a chalet.
“250 stations and 120,000 jobs” at risk
“The sentence fell from above, like all the management of the crisis, with a decision without coherence or common sense.
How to explain that we can go to a cinema in Paris but not in an open-air ski resort?
How can you understand that your ministers, just a few days ago, encouraged them to hire seasonal workers and take vacations in the mountains?
», The elected officials get carried away.
READ ALSO>
Christmas, certificate, curfew ... all the answers to your questions on progressive deconfinement
They particularly regret that countries like Austria and Switzerland have decided to open their tracks, while they cannot, causing “anger and consternation”.
"Are you talking about Europe?
But it's not for Merkel to decide the future of our resorts, ”they say, referring to Berlin's position in favor of a general ban on skiing in the EU.
These elected officials consider that the executive's decision is "a sentence against tens of thousands of jobs and businesses", endangering "250 stations, 120,000 jobs and 9 billion euros in revenue for our country" .
For them, "we must open the stations with the ski lifts for December".
They then demand "a precise schedule" and "urgently a summit of the mountain" around Jean Castex in order to obtain "a real compensation plan equal to the economic shock".
Newsletter "It pays me"
The newsletter that improves your purchasing power
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
* This column is signed, in addition to Laurent Wauquiez, by Hervé Gaymard, president of the department of Savoie, Jean-Pierre Barbier, president of the department of Isère, Christian Monteil, president of the department of Haute-Savoie, Jean-Luc Boch , president of the National Association of Mayors of Mountain Resorts (ANMSM), but also Alexandre Maulin, president of Domaines skiables de France (DSF), or Eric Breche, president of the National Union of French Ski Instructors (SNMSF).
