New summit meeting in Bercy.
This Tuesday afternoon, representatives of the hotel, café and restaurant sector will be received at the Ministry of the Economy by Bruno Le Maire, during a working meeting at 3 p.m.
The latter, which should not be followed by immediate announcements, should be an opportunity to take stock of the epidemic.
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Among the participants will be in particular the president of the national group of independent hotel and catering (GNI HCR), Didier Chenet, as well as the president of the national thematic and commercial catering union (SNRTC) and the confederal vice-president of the Union of hotel trades and industries (Umih), Hervé Becam.
The working meeting comes as the warning signs of a postponement of the reopening of restaurants, so far scheduled for January 20, have multiplied in recent days.
First, the takeover of cultural establishments was itself postponed.
A decision justified by the virulence of the epidemic on the territory.
Then, the Minister responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises, Alain Griset, said this Sunday on Europe 1 that it seemed "
unlikely
" that restaurants could reopen on the scheduled date.
"
We are waiting to see how the holiday weekends will or will not impact the pandemic, and it is then, in view of these elements, around January 10, that we can make a final decision
", was justified -he.
Citing several government sources, RTL also put forward a report, which Bercy has not wished to confirm or deny so far.
For their part, restaurateurs are preparing, resigned, to have to cash in new weeks without normal activity.
The establishments have already been closed from mid-March to early June, and since early November.
That is to say more than four months without receipt of money other than the take-away sale over the last ten months.
Their appeal to the Council of State for an immediate recovery was rejected in early December.
The institution, like the government, notably cited an American study - contested by the profession - which established that these places were conducive to contagion.
The profession benefits from targeted government aid, as well as from significant measures, but the financial and moral consequences of this prolonged shutdown are becoming more and more visible.
"
The situation will become psychologically complicated for many of us, and this risks doing more damage than the coronavirus
", warned on Monday the president of the cafes, bars and breweries of the GNI-Synhorcat, Marcel Benezet.