Latest news with #centrists
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Could axing two holidays save France from its mountain of debt?
Prime Minister François Bayrou has put the cat among the pigeons in promising to cut two of France's national holidays in order to rescue the country's enough, his proposal on Tuesday to axe the Easter Monday and 8 May holidays triggered howls of protest from the left and the populist right – with his own centrists and the conservative right expressing at best guarded a country with such a strong tradition of worker protest, the sudden removal of two statutory days off was never going to be an easy men and women would be made to work two extra days a year for no increase in salary. The gain in productivity would help pull the country put of its ever-deepening hole of debt. The French are indeed very attached to their jours fériés. The month of May is awaited with glee every year, not just because it heralds spring – but also because of the succession of long weekends that regularly 1 May (Workers' Day) and 8 May, marking the end of World War Two, fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, then the weekends become four-day treats because the Monday and the Friday will automatically be taken as holiday top of that there is Ascension (always a Thursday) plus Easter Monday and Whit Monday (or Pentecost). If the Church calendar obliges, an early Easter can combine with 1 or 8 May to provide not just a pont or bridge - meaning a four-day weekend spanning a Monday or Friday, but a veritable five or six-day viaduc (viaduct).November is another feast of feasts, with All Saints' on the first of the month and Armistice on the 11th offering relief from autumn blues. And on top of that, there are the famous "RTT" days, which many get in return for working more than the legal 35 hours a before we lapse into humorous self-satisfaction about "those incredibly lazy French and their God-given right to endless downtime", we need to bear in mind a couple of other far from the popular image, the French actually have fewer national holidays than the European average. France has 11, like Germany, the Netherlands and US. Slovakia has the most, with 15, and England, Wales, and the Netherlands have the fewest, with 8. Ireland and Denmark have according to the UK's Office for National Statistics, French productivity (output per worker) is 18% higher than the UK's, So any gloating about holidays from across the Channel is this is not the first time in recent years that France has proposed to axe national holidays. It has happened before – and worked (kind of).In 2003, the conservative government under President Jacques Chirac wanted to do something radical after the deadly heatwave of that summer which killed 15,000 Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin decided to turn Whit Monday into a Day of Solidarity. People would work instead of taking the day off, and the money gained by employers would be paid to the government for a fund to help the elderly and was an outcry, and a few years later the change was watered down so that now the Day of Solidarity is voluntary. It is all highly confusing, and no-one really understands how it functions, but non-Whit Monday still generates €3bn (£2.6bn; $3.5bn) every year in precedent goes back to the 1950s and Charles de Gaulle. Newly appointed as president, in 1959 he axed the 8 May Victory in Europe holiday, saying the country could not afford it. It was reinstated in 1981 by the Socialist François looks to scrap two holidays in bold bid to cut debtSo when on Tuesday the Greens accused Bayrou of trying to "wipe from the collective memory the eradication of Nazism", it was quite easy for minister Benjamin Haddad to retort: "Actually, it was De Gaulle who first did this, and I seem to recall he played a certain role in eradicating Nazism."None of this means that Bayrou is any the more likely to see his proposals become truth is that the prime minister is in a position of almost total impotence – running a government with no majority in parliament, which could fall at any minute if the opposition groups so in an odd way, this very powerlessness has given Bayrou the freedom to say what he thinks. If there is little likelihood of his budget proposals getting voted through the Assembly - and the chances are virtually zero - then he might as well give the French the unsugared economic situation is dire, he said. Every second that passes, France has €5,000 more debt. Today it stands at €3.3tn. In these circumstances, Bayrou believes maybe we need to re-think the way we live. And work.
National Post
08-07-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Leslie Roberts: Canada needs a centrist revolution
There was a time when most Canadians stood proudly in the political centre. We believed in individual freedoms, a social safety net and reasonable government. But something has shifted. Today, many of us who still hold those values inexplicably find ourselves on the right of the political spectrum. Article content Ideas once considered mainstream — free speech, public safety, fiscal responsibility — are now branded right-wing. Article content Article content Article content Extremes on both sides have reshaped the political landscape. Performative outrage has replaced practical solutions. Moderates are being pushed aside or shouted down — not for changing, but for refusing to. Article content Article content Let's face it: being reasonable now means being labelled right-of-centre. Wanting a Canada that protects freedoms, rewards effort and respects differing opinions is now controversial. And yet, those were once core Canadian values. Article content Centrists have become disillusioned — and for good reason. Take the case of former prime minister Justin Trudeau. Once the darling of the centre, he took the Liberal party sharply to the left and abandoned the liberal principles that once defined the party: fiscal responsibility, common sense, personal accountability and respect for democratic institutions. Article content One of the clearest examples came in 2023, when the federal government gave British Columbia the authority to decriminalize all drugs, including heroin and fentanyl. It was framed as a compassionate move, but the results were disastrous. The streets of Vancouver and Victoria were surrendered to an ideology that insists nothing — not addiction, not public disorder — should ever be judged or addressed. Article content Article content Then there was the overreach. In 2022, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act to deal with some protesters in downtown Ottawa. There were horns and bouncy castles, but the protest was largely peaceful. Article content Article content Contrast that with the past two years, as antisemitic demonstrators have blocked streets in major cities, chanting violent slogans that frighten Jewish-Canadians — and police responded not with emergency powers, but with crowd control and, in one case, coffee. Article content The double standard is glaring. And questioning it now gets you branded as far-right. Somehow, common sense has become radical. Article content It's not off-base to identify as a conservative, even for those who don't support the Conservative party. These days, it can simply mean believing in accountability, freedom of thought and respect for institutions — values that used to unite Canadians across party lines. Article content The truth is that those who once leaned slightly left and those who leaned slightly right now have more in common than ever before. The political centre — that wide, quiet majority — has been forced into the same room by the extremes. And we're realizing we agree on far more than we don't.
Wall Street Journal
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
House Republicans Threaten to Sink Trump's Megabill
House Republicans are already lining up to oppose President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' with conservatives and centrists blasting the legislation just hours after Vice President JD Vance cast his tiebreaking vote on the Senate version. At the moment, the number of House Republicans vowing to oppose the Senate version is enough to block the bill's passage, unless there is again a last-minute scramble to negotiate with holdouts along with a successful pressure campaign by the president. Only three House Republicans need to oppose the bill to sink it.
Wall Street Journal
29-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Republicans Fight It Out on Trump's Tax Megabill
WASHINGTON—The Senate geared up Sunday for an all-night session of debate and amendment votes on the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill,' after Republicans narrowly advanced the measure in a 51-49 vote that set up more push-and-pull before final passage. The 940-page legislation is driving a wedge between the GOP's two wings, just as the party is racing to pass the measure early this week. Centrists have raised concerns about cutting benefit programs and straining state budgets, while fiscal conservatives are pushing for even more cuts to rein in federal budget deficits.
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords
Maybe it's using the word 'oligarchs' instead of rich people. Or referring to 'people experiencing food insecurity' rather than Americans going hungry. Or 'equity' in place of 'equality,' or 'justice-involved populations' instead of prisoners. As Democrats wrestle with who to be in the era of President Donald Trump, a growing group of party members — especially centrists — is reviving the argument that Democrats need to rethink the words they use to talk with the voters whose trust they need to regain.
