The smell of tear gas, the din of firecrackers and the songs of processions, this optician in the Joan of Arc district remembers the explosive Saturdays in the city center.

And even if the demonstrations have calmed down a bit lately, his business “Mon Opticien” is regularly impacted on weekends by a handful of irreducible yellow vests and antivax. “Sometimes they block the boulevard. There aren’t many of them, but the buses are still diverted,” continues the optician.

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Theater of rallies at the end of the week, the districts of Compans, Jeanne d’Arc and Jean Jaurès are still subject to closures by the CRS. At the big barrage of traders, who see customers turn back in front of the columns of the National Police.

A significant financial loss

“We can’t take it anymore. There are sometimes several trucks for only a dozen demonstrators ”, gets carried away a manager of kebab close to Jean Jaurès. The restaurateur loses patience in the face of these repeated demonstrations: “We are blocked and customers cannot pass. In the meantime, we are the ones who pay.”

“It’s not easy to do but you have to proportion the police presence to the number of demonstrators,” said Philippe Léon, president of the Federation of Toulouse traders. “Afterwards, let’s not forget that the traders and the city center were able to return to normal activity after the chaos of the yellow vests every Saturday, thanks to this police presence”.

What also poses a problem for traders are deviations from the Tisséo lines. In the event of a gathering in the city center, some connections are disrupted. It is generally the very cited L1 which is deflected. “At the moment, the metro is under construction. People have to take the bus to come to the neighborhood. If the bus organization is upset, all the businesses in the area are affected”, complains the manager of the jewelry store on Boulevard d’Arcole.