French Tobacconists Shut Up Shop in Protest at Cigarette Tax Rise

Forewarned was plainly forearmed: judging by those accosted around the Place de l'Opéra yesterday, most of France's 14m smokers had stockpiled cigarettes days in advance of yesterday's one-day national tobacconists' strike.

"Bloody stupid question," said Marcel Bauer, a stationery salesman, exhaling over his coffee at the bar of Le Fontenoy. "I bought 10 cartons on Saturday, at the old price, so of course I've got enough for today. Anyone who hasn't must be daft or living on another planet."

"Your tobacconist is on strike," read the notices in the windows at Le Fontenoy. "They're taking out of our pockets the taxes they claim to be cutting elsewhere."

According to the national tobacconists' federation, some 88% of France's 34,000 state-controlled tobacco outlets stayed shut yesterday, or refused to sell cigarettes. The tabacs were protesting at a 20% tax increase. France, a country of unrepentant cigarette-lovers, is now the third most expensive country for European smokers after Norway and Britain. Another 20% price rise is scheduled for next January. That will lift the price of a packet of cigarettes to around €5.50 (about £3.85).

The increases are inspired mainly by President Jacques Chirac's promise to reduce the number of cancer sufferers; it kills about 30,000 people a year in France.

Tobacconists now say many of their number risk bankruptcy as more and smokers give up, start buying abroad or turn to the booming contraband market. In the first half of this year French police seized 92 tonnes of smuggled cigarettes, a 50% increase on the same period last year.

The government has announced a €133m package to compensate them for loss of income. But many, particularly in border areas where smokers can easily stock up in Spain, Belgium or Germany, say that is not enough.

"Even if we sell less tobacco, we have to be able to earn our living," said the federation's chairman, Rene le Pape.