As cafes and small shops disappear in France, environmentalists Marine Tondelier and Anne Souyris are advocating for a new tax to allow municipalities to fund the return of bistros. And this tax would target supermarkets and hypermarkets.
From 600,000 to 34,000. In a century, the number of cafes and bars in France has collapsed. And with this disappearance, social bonds are crumbling, warn environmentalists Marine Tondelier and Anne Souyris. In an op-ed published in La Tribune Dimanche, they warn of "an existential risk for our societies but a fatality."
"The decline in purchasing power, the rise in costs, recruitment difficulties combine with changes in habits: for the first time last year, fast food revenue surpassed traditional restaurants," they write.
To reverse the trend, they propose introducing a new tax and increasing another. "Supermarkets outside the city have depopulated town centers, small commercial circuits have been depopulated, and bistros have also left in this way," Green senator Anne Souyris warned this Monday, June 1 on RMC Story.
"Loneliness kills more than tobacco and alcohol"
Because there is a vital urgency according to her: "In the last 10 years, depopulation is complete, people no longer live in villages because of this, people stay at home, loneliness is there, loneliness kills and it kills more than tobacco and alcohol in France, it is an epidemic reality noted by the WHO," the elected official insists.
In these conditions, Anne Souyris proposes raising the Tascom, the tax on commercial surfaces, which municipalities collect to invest for collective interest. "We also want a surtax on these supermarkets that have monumental margins and direct responsibility," the senator assures.
With the risk that this tax will be passed on to the prices of goods on shelves? "It won't ruin them, it won't be a cost for small municipalities that can't pay for these cafes if we give a little boost, there are places where cafes are run by the local population, it's stimulating and virtuous."
"Paying taxes is not a punishment"
"We have an aging population, with people found dead alone at home," continues Anne Souyris on RMC, who asserts that supermarkets are indeed responsible for the desertion of town centers. And the environmentalist assures, "paying taxes is not a punishment, it's a contribution."
"Michel-Edouard Leclerc (the boss of Leclerc hypermarkets, editor's note) can come to say 'I agree with this kind of thing,' I dare him," she invites, mentioning a possible extension of this tax to Amazon.
For the implementation of this tax, Marine Tondelier and Anne Souyris call for a cross-party law: "How can we not imagine Parliament succeeding in agreeing on the defense of these 'bistros' that have shaped our identity and our ties and which we so need?" they predict.
G.D.
