Olympic Games 2024: the prefect proposes to remove only 428 boxes from second-hand books instead of 604

The number of bookstores along the Seine which will be removed for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 26 could be lowered from 604 to 428 by “sacrificing” the reception of the public in certain areas, it has been proposed Monday the police headquarters. Prefect Laurent Nuñez “agreed to sacrifice certain areas which will therefore not be open to the public (...) which makes it possible to save more than 170 boxes”, indicated the prefecture in a press release, after a meeting to which were invited booksellers.

The 428 boxes temporarily removed, “or less than half (47%)” of the 932 boxes on the high quays of the river, will be removed “within a reasonable time” which “does not exceed a few days for removal and a few days for the rest,” added the prefecture, stressing that the responsibility lay with the Paris town hall.

The 200 second-hand booksellers who are members of the association will decide on Friday whether they will appeal against the prefect's decision to remove these boxes, indicated Jérôme Callais, president of the Cultural Association of second-hand booksellers, for whom this proposal to “go down to 428 boxes » is an “amicable compromise”. “If, on the other hand, we went to the administrative court” to contest this decision, this offer from the prefecture would be withdrawn and “it would be more like 604 boxes,” he said, to summarize the dilemma. Even at 428, “that’s still a lot of people,” lamented Mr. Callais. “We are going to be the ones excluded from the party,” he regretted again.

According to Mr. Callais, the second-hand booksellers obtained an “early rest date” starting on July 29, compared to August 5 previously, after a dismantling scheduled from July 14 to 17. But “if they get blown up, how long will it take for them to get their boxes back? This is the great fear of the majority of my colleagues,” he said. Finally, “compensation only seems possible to us in a lump sum form, the same amount for everyone,” said Mr. Callais.

The second-hand booksellers, who notably highlight the fragility of these boxes in their refusal to free the quays of the Seine, believe that many of their colleagues will not be able to survive the weeks of inactivity imposed by the dismantling, restoration and reassembly of their tool. work.