NORTH: the added weight of Brexit
On the port of Calais
At the end of the pier in the port of Calais, the "Spirit of Britain" begins its U-turn: heading for Dover, on the other side of the Channel. On the seawall, Marion, 25, who came to enjoy this Monday in the sun with her cousins, watches the ferry maneuver. “Usually, we exchange big signs with the passengers. But there, we don't see anyone, only trucks, ”she notes, annoyed.
"This morning, we loaded 63 cars, against 1465 the same day last year, confirms Jean-Marc Puissesseau, CEO of the Port Boulogne-Calais. And it will not work out with the quarantine imposed by Boris Johnson from June 8 on foreign visitors to the United Kingdom ( Editor's note: France will apply reciprocity ) ”.
Since March 18, confinement requires, car-coach traffic is stopped, with the exception of the comings and goings of Polish or Romanian workers in particular. A hard blow for the 1st passenger port in Europe. "A fall of 30% of our annual turnover - 100 to 110 million euros -, the reduction of half of the crossings, with five boats in service instead of nine", gears the boss. Before, there was a departure every half hour. There, only the trucks - there are still around 1,700 a day, instead of 3,000 - lining up in front of the porticoes of this padlocked port ... around which rare migrants still dream of crossing to the British Grail.
"Between the upheavals of Brexit and the Covid-19, we are more than rowdy," sighs Puissesseau. But he wants to remain optimistic, counting on a resumption of goods traffic on the eve of the effective exit of the British from Europe, January 1, 2021, with or without agreement. “This is the case at each key stage of Brexit, companies, anticipating rule changes, inflate their stocks. And if England becomes a third country, we will be able to add to the new port, which we are starting to build next year, a duty-free building: it is very attractive for passengers ”.
Back on the dike. “Because of the closed borders, we can no longer go to buy our cigarettes in La Pallie, in Belgium, around 60 km away. Otherwise, we risk a fine of 135 or 200 euros. For Calais residents it is disastrous, because they are 30 to 40% cheaper, ”laments Morgane, a 32-year-old nurse. Between her tobacco and the increase in the price of early vegetables, this mother of two ensures that her expenses have swelled by 400 euros per month. Some brave the ban, Belgian tobacconists having sent the message to come at 6:30 am to escape the controls. "No way for me," refutes Morgane. If I got caught, it would be less money to feed my kids. I prefer not to smoke ”…
In the center of Calais
"A closing effect? It is sure that I see new faces, people who can no longer get their supplies on the Belgian side, that is a little more ... but this bonus barely compensates for the drop in attendance ", sore, cigarette in the lips behind its plasticized window , the tobacconist of Civette, on the Place d'Armes. “Look, everything is closed, the bars, the two discos nearby. And when it reopens, will people want places without atmosphere where it will be necessary to stay at a distance? »Never happy ...
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If there is one product that the British come to buy in France, it is alcohol. "In the heyday, twenty years ago, before the end of the 10-franc crossings ( Editor's note: around 1.50 euros ), they represented 40% of my clientele," says Iris Crespo, jovial owner of the Maison du fromage and wines. Now it has dropped to 15%. And since the confinement, I saw in all and for a whole English couple ”.
Its flirtatious showcase attracts these tourists who go back and forth to stuff their shopping carts with euro bottles rounded up in cash and carry stores along the highway or at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, then spend as much for treat yourself to some good vintages unearthed in downtown boutiques. "Among my regulars, I had London law firms, they told me that it was cheaper and as fun as going to spend a golf weekend in Portugal," she says, nostalgic.
In Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
Inland, Saint-Omer, a city built on an ever-growing marsh, has a special connection with Great Britain. “There is a small Canterbury side here, an art of living, a heritage appreciated by the English, and this link was reinforced with the discovery in 2014 in our library of a first folio ( Editor's note: original edition ) by Shakespeare dating from 1623, ”enthuses Julien Duquenne, the young director of the tourist office.
This family resemblance pleases Peter Tear, 73, a smooth skull and colorful shirt, a Scottish advertiser sharing his life between London and New York but who has been in love with Saint-Omer since his teenage vacation, that it's here and nowhere elsewhere that he wanted to confine himself. "Boris Johnson's hesitations about the pandemic made me uncomfortable," he says. So when a London friend who owns a house here offered to accompany her by car on March 17, I didn't hesitate. ”
Alas, French customs officials refuse to let him in. A phone call to the mayor, François Decoster, giving his word that the man lives well in the city, will resolve the problem in extremis. “When I hear Edouard Philippe on television, I don't regret it: pam pam pam, everything is clear. There I have confidence ”. His projects? Apply for your residence permit and set up a restaurant and a jazz club.
In Arques (Pas-de-Calais)
Crisis ? What crisis? "We never stopped, no partial unemployment, we are a case it seems, TV came," laughs André Pecqueur, 77, earthy boss of the Brasserie Goudale. And none of the Covid-19 patients among the 140 employees of its factory where silos, pipes and conveyor belts of bottles and cans of beer shine like Cadillac chrome. Every day he sends 90 trucks to deliver to retailers and supermarkets in England. “As in France, our sales there increased by 15%. Without being able to go to the bar, people drank at home ”, analyzes Pecqueur, who admits without any doubt that the year will be“ very largely profitable ”for his group (390 million euros in turnover).
Faced with the increased demand, “we are working on Ascension and Pentecost. Our employees follow because we are a family group: no outside shareholder, the profits stay at home, we distribute profit-sharing, participation and Macron bonus of 1,000 euros ”.
SOUTH: Spain leaves quarantine
Au Perthus (Pyrenees-Orientales)
If you decide to quarantine, me too! This is the game played by France and Spain following Madrid's decision in mid-May to impose 14 days of isolation on all foreigners, including Europeans, arriving at the country's ports and airports. In the border village of Perthus, the PAF (Air and Border Police) agents are vigilant but friendly. A Clio arrives from Catalonia, its French driver brandishes several documents: passport, osteopath professional card, employment contract in Spain. She joins her home on the French side. Then a Spanish soldier, to whom a gabelou speaks in his language: married to a Frenchwoman - his family record attests to this - he returns to his home near Perpignan. Cross-border workers can pass without taking a temperature or threatening quarantine: "too complicated to implement," we explain. But those who, on both sides, just try to go for a walk or go shopping "on the other side" are repressed mercilessly.
In Figueras (Spain)
"Here, tourism is the main resource, the closure of the border has a dramatic effect," says Josep Puigbert, delegate of the government of Catalonia (Generalitat) in the Pyrénées-Orientales. His offices are in Perpignan, but he is confined to his home in Figueras. "Alarmist rumors speak of closure until the fall, so the associations of traders are increasing the pressure on Barcelona and Madrid for a reopening before the summer." Usually, the neighbors of Occitanie come to buy their meat, early vegetables at the market and cigarettes, then offer themselves a restaurant and fill up with gas when they leave, all this for 40% cheaper than in France. Some French companies set up branches on the Catalan side, to take advantage of favorable tax and labor laws. "Figueres is the smallest town where the Zara brand has a store, but it is to target the Perpignan clientele while keeping the advantages of Spain," explains Puigbert.
VIDEO. Deconfinement: alcohol and cigarettes, the French rush to the Spanish border
Compared to the large battalions of border crossers with Switzerland, Germany or Luxembourg, the Franco-Spanish zone appears pale, with about a thousand on each side. Among the explanations, Josep Puigbert points out “a decline in the learning of French here, and that of Catalan in France, perceived as an identity language. But it has an economic interest ”. Example? “In the region, the main buyers of villas between 400,000 and 600,000 euros are French, as are the first patients in hospitals, behind the Spanish. Bilingual real estate agents and caregivers are needed, it should attract cross-border workers. ”
In Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)
The Saint-Charles international market stretches its warehouses in a heat of 31 °. Patrick Brun, boss of Anteus Fruits, oversees the transhipment of a cargo of watermelons, just arrived by truck from Morocco, to three other heavy goods vehicles which will transport them to Germany and Austria, for small distribution. "The demand is picking up exponentially, people want citrus and freshness to get out of containment," said the person who experienced cold sweats in March. "Everything was frozen, our customers in canteens and hotels in Europe stopped all purchases, and no agricultural worker, in Morocco or Spain, was available for picking because of the confinement". In the din of the engines and the whirlwind of thousands of pallets, the market starts again.