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, when France commemorates Victory Day, marking the end of the second world war, although he said he was open to other options.
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.
Or, just tax the rich.
France already has one of the most progressive tax systems in the OECD. Their main problem is the opposite: the tax system is too narrow. Generally, European welfare states function by levying high taxes on everyone. Problem with France is that they try to have a welfare state without taxing the middle class enough. For example, it levies 5% lower VAT than the Nordics, and grants lots more exemptions.
Or, we could stop making excuses for not taxing the rich and… Tax the rich.
The cluelessness here is hilarious. The rich have all the money, they just don’t want to pay. The entirety of the middle class makes a tiny fraction of what the rich who reap all the benefits do. The “welfare states” only exist because the rich have taken all the money that would have gone to their employees and allowed them to pay for the services that the government now provides. Generational wealth should be the norm, comfortable livings should be the bare minimum. The rich are still making all the money, they’re richer than ever, they just aren’t paying back into the system that provides them with immense wealth and protects it. They’re freeloading pieces of shit and it’s amazing that they have smooth-brained sycophants even among the poors that they exploit.
None of those parasitic gremlins would have anything if it weren’t for the middle class generating it for them, both creating and consuming. Your completely insane solution is to attack the source of wealth rather than the leeches siphoning off the vast majority of it while putting in comparitively negligible effort. The middle class is sharing a dwindling portion of generated wealth as the rich get richer and here you are saying the solution is to make the middle class poorer still.
So no, the middle class should not be paying more to prop up the system that already gives almost all of the fruits of its labor to a small pack of assholes whose primary qualification is being born into enough money to already have the road to success paved for them, people who have no more intelligence or ability than the rest of us and who, if born into lower social strata, would not have the ability to leave it because of sabotage by people like you.
The ultra-rich don’t earn their money, they just get it by dipping into our collective wallets. They can get a little bit less so the wheels on the bus keep spinning and allow the workers to continue providing them with private jets and collections of vacation homes.
Being from the US, I don’t know the french tax system, what % are the different classes paying?
He’s not a fucking centrist…
Yeah, let’s not touch one cent of the 221 billion € each year given to large corporations, and instead stop celebrating the victory against Nazism.
Biggest public spending by far: gifts to private companies, going completely uncheck for decades, no one know what any of the 2000+ schemes are and why this money is given and for what and nothing is expected in return. But if we are missing 17 billions on healthcare budget, we are supposed to get screwed and shut up.
Sounds like royalty to me, we’ll get the cure out of the storage and sharpened again
the annual interest, of €60bn, could soon become its biggest budget outlay.
public financial support for the corporate sector currently coats €100bn
Not only not a centrist, he can’t even do math.
Yes because all the recent evidence definitely doesn’t suggest that productivity is increased with 4 day working weeks overall
Why? Because free time is good for people’s mental and physical health. You know who’s more productive than someone who doesn’t have time or energy to improve their health? Someone who does!
Truly baffling stuff
Yeah, that’ll go down well with the populace I’ll bet. Cue rioting and fires.
Knowing what I know of French history, I would never be a politician in France.
Meanwhile, the rich and the corporations don’t have to make any effort. There comes a time when they’ll have to grab some bourgeois to set an example. The French have forgotten that the bourgeoisie, like dogs, must be trained, otherwise they’ll do only shit
deleted by creator
And God bless the French, they will burn Paris to the fucking ground for this. Meanwhile, in the U.S., congress just decimated what little public healthcare we have, and guys with Gadsden flag profile pics and handles like, “1776patriot,” actively cheered them on.
American here… this plan implies that corporations are well taxed right. Cause if people work on a holiday, thier pay doesn’t change I assume. That means only the increased output that leads to corporate income generates leading to improved tax revenue counts.
If the corporate tax rate is low like in the US, this would be like trying to fill the bathtub through a straw while the drain is open.No no no, you can’t tax corporations silly. That would punish them for creating jobs and wealth, they will leave the country and take back their jobs and then where would we be? Better continually lower corp taxes and Unleash the Magic™️ that will somehow cause budgets to balance themselves and jobs to spring up in abundance.
Is that how france does it too? I know that is the concept here in the states.
Almost everywhere these days sadly. If there are exceptions, I’m not aware of them. Tax codes are globally under fire because companies see them as an impediment to profitability, and not the foundation for how society functions and thus allows business to function.
Well, in the US the board of a public company has a legal fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders. And shareholders look for short term gains. So basically, if the company tried to do what was right for the long term, the board would get sued, and lose. After the united healthcare CEO got shot and killed, United started denying less claims. It was surely a short-term measure designed to help the company long term. A major investment company that owned a lot of shares is suing them for that specific decision. This kind of thing has lead to companies being controlled by people who favor short term wins, like lower taxes now, worry about everything else later.
OR, and hear me out on this one, you could TAX THE RICH.
Does this cheese eating surrender monkey want the French to riot? because this is how you get the French to riot.
Read the article looking for his reasoning. Nada. Apparently he got a calculator out and thought, “We could be 0.54% more productive!”
For only two days, there is almost no productivity lost. People simply work a little harder to make up that time. There’s also less work because no one else was working, but still, c’mon.
They’ll have his head for this
I don’t know about you guys but when we have a public holiday im normally out doing something. Spending money. So won’t this just cancel out?
Essentially, cancelling public holidays will in short term add some slave labourto the company, which in turn maybe add more profits, more b2b economical activity, and if France has any decent corporate tax and not too many loopholes, some money will go into budget to be allocated to usual overspending that got you into this place, and none to repay debts.
Tldr: you’re being screwed over, go protest, or ask for raises when this actually occurs.
I know someone from France with 36 vacation days 😅 36 !!!
Jealiousy brought you to the point of laughing about others having it better than you, and accepting your horrible state as the norm.
Guess what? They have paid sick leave as well.
I bet you lament about billionaires and big corporations all day, not realising that they make the rules where you live. Why would you laugh at a country that values their citizens at least a bit instead of doing everything for the profit of the richest?
I would not jump into too many conclusions. My friend with 36 days of vacation said she’d prefer somewhat higher wage in France and would be happy with a few less days. To conclude I am jealous would mean you know me a bit. And you don’t. :)
Your friend wants higher wages. Stop.
Less than 2 month, not a lot. I have 31 by default and it’s the lower end of the norm
Yes that’s nice! I also have 31
27, plus bank holidays, and I get days back if my on call falls on a bank holiday. I’m not going to complain, but that’s indoctrination.
