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.
Yeah like after World War 2, when the government imposed The New Deal and the economy worked and the middle class were able to exist and have a family with a single full time job whilst having 90% corporate tax for higher end earnings?
Or, during Reagan and Thatcherism when the government imposed the neoliberal nightmare that gave us the 2008 crash and put every single country in the world into debt we have never been able to escape and defined the future of the next 3 generations after GenX?
What about during Covid, when the world governments imposed “relief” through gifted billions to the ruling class as subsidies they never paid back?
The government imposed all of these. It’s not freedom if there is no class mobility. Dynastic wealth is monarchy. Lick the shit off the boots, like a good citizen and jog on.