The President of the “Mouvement des Entreprises de France” (Movement of French Enterprises), Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, stated that preliminary estimates indicate that ongoing protests in the country have caused damages of over 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion) across various sectors, excluding tourism.
Roux de Bézieux made these remarks in an interview with the newspaper “Le Parisien” on Monday, noting that it is still premature to publish accurate statistics on the damages caused by the protests in France, although he believes the figure could surpass 1 billion euros.
He clarified that the figure does not include the damages incurred by the French tourism industry. He added, “It is always difficult to determine whether the impact will persist for a long time, but there will certainly be a decline in bookings during the current summer season.
Despite the promising start of the season, many reservations have already been canceled.”
It is worth mentioning that on the morning of June 27th, a police officer was fatally shot by a 17-year-old teenager in the suburb of Nanterre in Paris, allegedly for refusing to comply with his orders during a driver’s license check. This incident sparked riots in several French cities in the past few days.
The French Ministry of Interior stated that government and police buildings were set on fire, approximately 3,800 cars were burned, and according to the Ministry of Economy data, nearly 250 bank branches, 200 retail stores, and around 10 shopping centers were looted. Special forces with helicopters and armored vehicles were deployed in several French cities, leading to the arrest of around 3,000 individuals, including many perpetrators.
