Perpignan downtown store closures and mayor Louis Aliot’s emergency measures, Digi Mart USA News (Perpignan, France): Actu Perpignan has reported in recent weeks that many shops in Perpignan’s city center have announced permanent closures or been placed in judicial liquidation.
Three emblematic cafés have closed: Café de la Paix on Place Arago four months ago, followed by Le Grand Café de la Poste near the Castillet and Le Petit Moka on Place République within days of each other.
Ten other stores and boutiques in the heart of the city, including Otago, Quatre Sixième, Muy Mucho, By Sasha, IKKS, Maison Malo Jott, Chaussures Longuépée, Jean Boghos and Levi’s, have closed or are set to close soon. In total, at least 13 businesses, some of them historic, are about to disappear from downtown Perpignan.
On social media, the successive closure announcements have prompted questions and criticism directed at Mayor Louis Aliot, in office since 2020. Other residents have defended him, while the vice president of the Rassemblement National has nonetheless been singled out for the string of bad news affecting downtown commerce and the local economy.
In a press release issued Thursday, November 5, Aliot announced several measures. He said he had decided, in the emergency, to take steps to address difficulties caused by the repeated social movements, including a “massification” of security devices and teams in the city center.
The mayor also opted for an “expansion of promotional campaigns for the city center and of our free parking spaces.” The City of Perpignan said it would maintain “in full” its end-of-year program of events, including the installation of a giant crèche, as Actu Perpignan reported recently. Aliot also announced that the entire Christmas market, already being set up, and urban mobility would be maintained, except where prefectoral bans apply.
Aliot said that over the longer term, the city has for several months been working on measures to address the underlying problems facing downtown commerce, which some of the recent closures reflect: excessive commercial rents, aggressive e-commerce competition and saturation of peripheral commercial zones.
In the same statement, Aliot reaffirmed his “total support for merchants,” noting that “all city centers are suffering in France today. The problem is deep: it is economic, fiscal and cyclical.” In Perpignan, he said, this national situation is greatly worsened by repeated demonstrations in the city center, which heavily penalize economic activity on Saturdays.
He added that he has long advocated, with the prefect, who has authority in this area, for a ban on demonstrations on Perpignan’s commercial thoroughfares.
Aliot, who is also president of the Perpignan Méditerranée Métropole agglomeration, said he is working to “equip the city with the essential tools for revitalizing our city center.” Planned projects include creating a property company to offer commercial units at adapted prices, freezing authorizations for new peripheral commercial zones, and reactivating the tax on commercial vacancy. He is also considering targeted digital communication to promote downtown businesses, developed with a specialized operator.
Finally, Aliot said he would ask the national government to create a tax-free zone in the city center to reduce the charges weighing on downtown businesses.
