Urban violence: the exorbitant cost of a weekend of riots for businesses and communities

Ransacked shops, broken windows, destroyed street furniture, town hall set on fire… The total bill for the violence committed during the weekend of October 17 and 18, on the sidelines of the demonstration against “the high cost of living”, promises to be astronomical.

At this stage, it is still too early to know the exact amount. But the network of chambers of commerce and industry (CCI France) has already mentioned “hundreds of millions of euros in damage” for traders alone.

“We are in an extremely serious public security crisis, the scale and consequences of which are unprecedented for commerce,” explains Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour and president of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution (FCD), to Le Figaro. During the “yellow vests”, there was certainly violence but no looting. There you have 3,000 businesses on land and events which are further darkening the already very fragile consumption and morale of the French. This is unheard of. »