La Junquera is one of those places where you can find characters that few belong to but cannot be found anywhere else. The border town has that intriguing atmosphere of a bus stop at dawn. on the streets of Los Limites, border with Francefake dealers, truck drivers from the east, exhausted cyclists looking for supplies after crossing this part of the Pyrenees, and various coats of swindlers that no one knows very well how they got there.
Those whose targets are clear are the French running along the Spanish pavement in the floods – the road and the other pavement are already France – in search of cheap alcohol and tobacco. Packages can cost half of the neighboring country and alcohol, about two euros per bottle. So much so that the Ministry of Finance called for auctions of five new tobacconists in the town. This would certainly make La Junquera the town with the highest number of tobacco smokers per capita in Spain.
Another major attraction of the region is prostitution. Advertised as Europe’s largest brothel, Paradise feeds off a highly French clientele who is attracted to a human business banned in the neighboring country. And finally, gasoline. The refueling business is one of the top paying jobs. on the spot. Being the last option to refuel before arriving in France, many take the opportunity to fill their tank with a full tank to cross the border.
La Junquera has up to seven gas stations, attracting thousands of drivers who take advantage of the stations located on the roads that run through the municipality; The AP7 and N-II are on their way to Europe. historically, business round. The price difference between countries stops many drivers, both professional and private, to fill their tanks and have the opportunity to visit other businesses such as supermarkets or restaurants.
But since last September, the tables have changed. Faced with the energy crisis, the French Parliament Increase in the discount applied to every liter of fuel sold in France. This went from 18 cents per liter to 30 in September and October. The measure resulted in gasoline costing less in France than in Spain, and therefore commercial demand for Spanish gas stations disappeared.
This is causing a paradigm shift in local service stations. The shops continue to attract tourists, the Gran Jonquera outlet, a large shopping mall, shows its parking lot full of cars with French license plates, and the queues at the tobacconists continue. At the entrance to the exit, Bernadette, a resident of neighboring Perpignan, announces that she “comes shopping and eats at the free buffet”, but clarifies: “I will not fill the deposit“.
However, the picture in the service areas is depressing. There are hardly any cars to see and those that are there do not fill the tank. As in the case of Benoît, a 31-year-old dealer who claimed to have stopped because he was “all in reserve” but refueled as little as possible until he reached France in his gray Peugeot 307. Where this happens, the person in charge of the gas station agrees: the fall after summer was ‘dramatic’ and that The car market has completely collapsed.. “If this continues, we’ll need to take action,” his three employees listen, while he’s currently holding hands with customers who haven’t arrived yet.
Matías, the manager of another neighboring gas station, admits that they didn’t notice much of the fiasco thanks to deals with major shipping companies, and they hoped “everything will be back to normal before next year”. As in the first case, now up to five idle workers have no one to refuel. Joachim, the German driver who brings fruit to his country, confirms this. Stop at that gas station ’cause that’s the gas station preferential treatment with your company.
Isabel Vera, a member of the local trade association Comerc Jonquera, says sales have plummeted due to gasoline prices. She says she’s from the hairdresser she works for, she says “customers have fallen” because they didn’t come to “make it right”. We hope “macron getting angry and remove the helpers soon”.