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A8 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 24 december 2019
Holiday blues: French strikes hit Christmas shopping season

By NICOLAS GARRIGA down 30% from last year.
ANGELA CHARLTON Galeries Lafayette alone
PARIS (AP) — Last year, it registered a 50% drop in
was the yellow vest pro- sales the first day of the
tests. This year, it's the strikes strike, it said.
that have crippled Paris. Pascal Bouaziz, owner of a
The Christmas holidays high-end electronics shop
aren't proving to be a lu- in the tony 8th district of
crative - or indeed merry Paris, estimates sales are
- time for boutiques in the down a third from a normal
capital. December.
Or, for that matter, oyster "We are in a business neigh-
vendors. Or hotels, or cafes. borhood, so people finish
Decorative lights still shim- work … and usually during
mer along the French capi- the holiday season they
tal's glamorous avenues come in, they buy their
and illuminate its breath- products and they calm-
taking monuments, but ly return home. But now
that's not enough to bring they're scared to miss their
back the business that re- train, so at 5 p.m. they're
tailers have lost since train running to get home," he
drivers and others went on A striking train worker holds a box to collect -funds for striking workers in front of riot police officers told The Associated Press.
strike Dec. 5. outside the the Gare de Lyon train station, Monday, Dec. 23, 2019 in Paris. "We understand them. Be-
Monday marked Day 19 of Associated Press cause of this, we have few-
the strikes over President er customers than usual."
Emmanuel Macron's plans pers from reaching the time I gave that up," said The Paris government is of- Some shops struggle to stay
to redesign the national shopping mecca along the Marie Lesage, a 32-year- fering 2.5 million euros in tax open because their own
pension system, which Champs-Elysees. old Parisian. breaks to city merchants, employees can't get to
unions see as a threat to Those driving to the capi- So she decided to shop and the central govern- work.
the French welfare system tal to shop sometimes face online or in little boutiques ment is offering to delay Online deliveries are some-
and way of life. hours of traffic, and battles close to work. 400 million euros in tax pay- times delayed by tangled
A wildcat protest by union or long waits for scarce Overall estimates of retail ments until next year. But traffic – a problem that's
activists Monday disrupted parking spots. losses vary, but they're hit- the Paris region Chamber making last-minute shop-
traffic on one of only two "It's very difficult. I usually ting across the board. Toy of Commerce says that's pers nervous the day be-
Paris subway lines that's go the Galeries Lafayette stores, florists and foie gras not enough. fore Christmas Eve, when
been functioning normally several times, walk through sellers. Train station cafes, The chamber estimates re- French families often ex-
— and prevented shop- Paris to buy things, but this brasseries or burger shops. tail sales in central Paris are change gifts.q

Putin opens railway

bridge to Crimea

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian bridge next year.
President Vladimir Putin on While passenger traf-
Monday inaugurated a fic across the bridge was
massive railway bridge to launched Monday, cargo
Crimea, which Russia an- trains will start rolling across
nexed from Ukraine in 2014. it next July, said Transport
Putin rode a commuter Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh.
train for the opening of Russia annexed Crimea in
the 19-kilometer (11.9-mile) March 2014 on the grounds
bridge, which is the longest that the residents of the
in Europe. peninsula voted to join up
The $3.6-billion project is in- with Russia. The move has
tended to bolster links be- met with widespread inter-
tween Russia and Crimea national censure, including
by increasing the transport U.S. and EU sanctions on
of cargo and encouraging Russia.
the flow of tourists. Ukraine has also blocked
Putin congratulated con- shipment of supplies via its
struction workers on com- territory to Crimea, and a
pleting the bridge, saying ferry crossing from Russian
that "it has proven our abil- Black Sea ports is often in-
ity to carry out large-scale terrupted by gales. Car traf-
infrastructure projects." fic across a parallel bridge
He said that 14 million pas- for cars across the Kerch
sengers and about 13 mil- Strait between the Black
lion tons of cargo are ex- Sea and the Sea of Azov
pected to move across the opened in May 2018.q