Duty Free Town on Spanish French Border Confused over De-escalation Rules Engulfed with Shoppers

Le Perthus is the town with a French and a Spanish border where the rules of de-escalation get confused.

THE coronavirus has returned the barriers to borders, but in Le Perthus it is impossible to prevent the passage of people from one country to another.

French residents can travel up to 100km away from home for non-essential journeys. As a result, the border town of Le Perthus has seen an onslaught of shoppers crowd its streets, likely in search of cheaper cigarettes, alcohol, or groceries.

The thing is, El Pertús is administratively divided between the French and the Spanish states, and some people in the north cross the border within the town to get lower-priced goods. And under normal circumstances, crossing the border is as simple as walking from one side of the street to the other, but local, Catalan, and Spanish police officers have cordoned off the border to regulate entry into establishments on their side.

Many French shoppers were spotted wearing face masks, but given the sheer amount of people waiting to cross the border at once, maintaining a safe distance between people has been tricky: “We’re trying to keep everything in order the best we can,” a shopkeeper said.

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