France flirts with cutting two public holidays to save money
French Prime Minister François Bayrou announced plans for spending cuts on Tuesday as the government targets 43.8 billion euros' ($50.9 billion) worth of savings in a bid to reach a budget deficit level of 4.6% in 2026, down from the 5.4% budget hole seen this year.
Among the proposals were suggestions that two public holidays be scrapped, 3,000 civil service jobs eliminated and the limitation of tax breaks for the wealthy.
The French government suggested that the public holidays that could face the axe are Easter Monday, which it said "no longer has any religious significances," and May 8, also known as 'Victory in Europe Day,' marking Nazi Germany's surrender that brought an end to World War II.
Those holidays occurred "in a month full of long weekends," the government said, and abolishing them would "increase economic activity in businesses, shops, and the civil service, thus improving our productivity."
The government also said a "special effort" would be required of those "who have the capacity to contribute more," proposing a "solidarity contribution" from the wealthiest.
"Today we are experiencing a moment of truth, one of those moments in the history of a nation where everyone must ask themselves: what part am I willing to play in our collective future?" Bayrou told a press conference late Tuesday.
"The threat of being crushed by debt has become real: it now represents 114% of gross domestic product (GDP), and its repayment continues to weigh more and more heavily on our budget. Every second, the debt increases by 5,000 euros. This is the last stop before the cliff," the prime minister said.
As part of his "Stop the Debt" plan, Bayrou said the government would look look to curb government spending except for in the realm of defense, with President Emmanuel Macron announcing plans on Monday to ramp up spending in that department.
The president called to raise defense spending by 3.5 billion euros ($4.09 billion) next year and by another 3 billion in 2027. That would take the total amount spent on security that year to 64 billion euros — double the defense budget the French armed forces had in 2017, when Macron first became president.
French lawmakers must approve the increases before they can be enacted. France's parliament, the National Assembly, has already endured months of wrangling over the wider 2025 national budget and cost savings, with arguments leading to a previous government collapse late last year.
Bayrou's premiership is precarious, with the prime minister surviving no less than eight no-confidence motions against him since taking office last December, with the last vote being on July 1.
He's facing the threat of another vote of no-confidence, with both the far-Left Communist Party and far-right National Rally both indicating they will not back the new budget cuts.
Fabien Roussel, the national secretary of the Communist Party, described the government's spending cut plans as an "organized robbery," stating on X that the government was "eliminating two public holidays to make us work for free."
While National Rally's President Jordan Bardella said any abolition of Easter Monday and May 8 would be "a direct attack on our history, our roots, and the France of work."
CNBC has contacted the government's press office for a response to the comments and is awaiting a reply.
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