French PM may scrap two public holidays to reduce country's crippling debt

The Guardian

a day ago

France's prime minister, François Bayrou, has proposed scrapping two public holidays as part of radical measures aimed at reducing the country's ballooning deficit, boosting its economy and preventing it being 'crushed' by debt.
Outlining the 2026 budget on Tuesday, Bayrou suggested Easter Monday and 8 May could become normal workdays – although he said he was open to other options. May 8th is currently when France commemorates Victory Day, marking the end of the second world war.
The centrist prime minister said: 'The entire nation has to work more so that the activity of the country as a whole increases, and so that France's situation improves. Everyone will have to contribute to the effort.'
France is under pressure to bring its public deficit, running at 5.8% of GDP, under the 3% figure required by EU rules, and to rein in €3.3tn of public debt – on which the annual interest, of €60bn, could soon become its biggest budget outlay.
The debt mountain represented a 'mortal danger' for a country 'on a cliff edge' and 'still addicted to public spending', Bayrou said, outlining steps he said would cut €43.8bn from the budget, reducing the deficit to 4.6% next year and 3% by 2029.
Other measures would include an across-the-board freeze on government spending except for debt servicing and the defence sector, which President Emmanuel Macron demanded should be increased by €3.5bn next year and more in 2027.
The budget squeeze will also entail keeping pensions at their 2025 level, capping welfare spending and reducing healthcare expenditure by €5bn. Civil service and government agency salaries would be frozen and public sector job numbers cut.
The move to scrap public holidays is likely to meet strong resistance, although France has previously discussed combining VE Day with Armistice Day on 11 November, creating a single memorial day for the victims of the first and second world wars.
'Cancelling two holidays is a direct attack on our history, our roots and on working France,' said Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally (RN), the largest single party in parliament. 'No RN MP will accept a measure that amounts to provocation.'
Other party leaders were equally damning. The proposals were 'an organised hold-up', said Fabien Roussel of the French Communist party. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left LFI said it was 'time to expel Bayrou' and 'end this destruction, these injustices'.
A Socialist party MP, Boris Vallaud, condemned it as 'a brutal and unacceptable budget'. He added: 'Asking always more from those who have little, and so little from those who have much, is neither serious, effective, nor just.'
Macron's decision to call a snap election last year delivered a hung parliament in which Bayrou does not have enough votes to pass a budget without the support of the left or the right, both of which oppose his proposals for different reasons.
Without an agreement, the veteran prime minister could face a no-confidence motion similar to the one that toppled his predecessor, Michel Barnier, as early as October, when his detailed budget bill is due to go before to parliament.