The police headquarters have sounded the end of recess.
This Monday evening, in order to fight against the crowds in front of bars and restaurants that sell take away, a decree banning the consumption of alcohol in two streets of Paris was decided.
This, valid for two weeks until the weekend of March 7, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., targets Place de la Contrescarpe (Ve) and rue de Buci (VIe).
Where the police had to intervene this weekend to disperse the crowd, out to take advantage of the first heat of the year.
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“Why these two only districts?
"Annoys Ferdinand
(the first name has been changed)
, member of an association of residents of the rue Oberkampf (11th century), where" some bars that do not have a kitchen pretend to sell cheese boards for in fact churn out tons of beer and create a crowd.
Has the prefect forgotten the rest of Paris?
"
Clearly no.
This Tuesday, the police headquarters threatened to extend the perimeter of its ban.
"Depending on the behavior observed by the police in the coming days, the list of streets concerned may be expanded," she warns.
It must be said that the health situation is worrying in the capital, where the incidence rate, corresponding to the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past week, now reaches 291, against 202 on average in France.
"This weekend, it was a human tide"
On the pretty little Place de la Contrescarpe, located in the heart of the Latin Quarter and targeted by the decree, the calm was sweating on Tuesday morning.
The many cafes were closed, their terraces folded up.
Only Gaston, a burger restaurant that sells take-out, was in the kitchen.
A police car was patrolling ... Nathalie and her daughter were going up the rue Mouffetard.
“This weekend, protests the local woman, it was a human tide.
Surreal in the midst of a pandemic.
There were a good 300 people in the square, touching down, mostly young people, a cardboard glass of beer in hand.
Many smoked.
Some were nibbling.
And hardly anyone wore a mask.
"
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It was also these images and those of the rue de Buci, relayed by the media, which triggered the prefect's order.
“Obviously, it's sad to come to this, regrets Florence Berthout, the mayor (LR) of Ve, that the prefect did not warn before the announcement.
I understand that suffering young people need to find each other, to exchange.
But these gatherings, even a good child, have lasted for weeks and can create clusters.
The mayor was also "solicited by residents who can no longer and who are afraid of contamination."
The elected official would however have preferred “police interventions to disperse.
The problem is, they are understaffed.
When I called them this weekend, the 56 police station
(Editor's note: which manages the 5th and 6th arrondissements)
told me that they could not come because, precisely, they were in rue de Buci!
"
"A discriminatory, unfair decision"
There, the prefect's order is perceived as "a discriminatory, unfair decision".
Eric Venezia, the owner of Molière, which is a wine bar and restaurant, is indignant: "There are so many people on the banks of the Seine, the Canal Saint-Martin, in Montmartre ..." To tell the truth, no arrondissement does not seems to have been spared.
In the 17th century, for example, the mayor (LR), Geoffroy Boulard, said he had to manage a crowd on rue Cardinet.
“Take-out is what saves us,” Eric Venezia replies to those who might criticize the behavior of bar and restaurant managers.
That's how I manage to pay the charges, barely.
Fortunately, we still have the right to sell, but not to let customers consume in the street.
"
Florence Berthout is therefore counting on the civility of Parisians: “This decree could be a warning shot.
We will see if, in two weeks, when the business takes over, customers are more reasonable… ”
In the meantime, Geoffroy Boulard fears that the decision of the prefecture, especially if it were to be extended, will only worsen the situation.
"The problem will shift," he thinks.
Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the 6th century, agrees: “Those who drank in the street will continue to do so, always in groups, but in their cramped Parisian apartments.
Isn't that more dangerous in terms of a cluster?
"
