Lunchtime News Wednesday 25th November 2020

News 

Finance minister - France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has announced that the new business support system, which makes is possible to compensate up to 20% of turnover for businesses which have remain closed due to Covid-19 will cost the State 1.6 billion euros per month.

During this morning’s interview with French media Le Maire also expressed that he was in favour of shops opening on the four Sundays in the run up to Christmas which he described as “catch-up Sundays”.

Restaurants remaining closed - Meanwhile this morning, the starred chef Jean-François Trap described the continued closure of restaurants until January as a "cold shower".

Press conference - Prime Minister Jean Castex will hold a press conference on Thursday morning to detail the easing of lockdown announced Tuesday by Emmanuel Macron.

SNCF - The CEO of SNCF Voyages assured that the railway company would run 100% of its trains from mid-December to allow the French to join their families at Christmas.

All mainline trains should run for the school holidays if the evolution of the health situation allows the lifting of lockdown planned on December 15th.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women – As today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against women the United Nations has said that lockdowns intended to stop the spread of the coronavirus have lead to an increase in violence against women, especially domestic violence worldwide.

While France has put in place several measures to combat this trend, more needs to be done. This year’s theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!”.  As with previous years, this year's International Day will mark the launch of 16 days of activism that will conclude on 10th December 2020, which is International Human Rights Day.

France's minister for equality says a thousand new places have been created in emergency shelters for those fleeing domestic violence, and 16 specialist regional centres have been opened to deal with perpetrators. However, women’s advocacy groups say this has yet to translate into a concrete response.

Some French associations have established contact points in supermarkets and a network of pharmacies has been established to allow women to report violence.