France to scrap VE Day holiday to fix budget black hole

Telegraph

4 days ago

France's prime minister has proposed scrapping the country's public holiday for VE Day as he tries to get a debt-strapped nation to live within its means.
François Bayrou has proposed axing two of the country's 11 bank holidays as part of a €44bn (£38bn) package intended to tackle the country's fiscal crisis.
'As a nation, we must work more,' Mr Bayrou said. 'This change to our holiday calendar will bring in billions to the state budget, simply because businesses, shops, the civil service and the nation will be working and our production will be improved.'
Paris has proposed scrapping Easter Monday and VE Day. Mr Bayrou said Easter Monday 'has no religious significance', while Victory in Europe Day falls in May, 'a month that has become a veritable Swiss cheese, where people jump from bridge to viaduct on vacation'.
The proposal is likely to run into stiff resistance in the French parliament, where MPs are almost certain to reflect French voters' anger at losing their precious springtime days off.
Jordan Bardella, leader of the populist-right National Rally (RN) party, said on the social media platform X that his party opposed the 'provocative' measure.
'The elimination of two public holidays, which are as meaningful as Easter Monday and May 8, is a direct attack on our history, our roots, and on working France,' he said.
Mr Bayrou's predecessor Michel Barnier lost the premiership last December after failing to win support for a less controversial austerity package. He had rejected the idea of cancelling any public holidays, even though a Senate report had suggested it would generate €2.4bn a year.
If Mr Bayrou succeeds, France will still have more public holidays than England and Wales, which have eight. Scotland has nine and Northern Ireland has 10.
On the continent, Germany has nine national holidays, Italy has 12 and Spain has eight national days and up to half a dozen regional or local holidays.
Mr Bayrou's announcement came the day after France's most effervescent public holiday, the July 14 Bastille Day celebration of French nationhood and values.
The premier said he was open to a public debate on which holidays should go. May 8 is observed across Europe, when the continent celebrates the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, which ended the Second World War in the Western hemisphere.
'These are proposals. I am ready to accept or examine others. If other ideas arise, welcome,' Mr Bayrou said during a speech to politicians and journalists that outlined his suite of tax increases and spending cuts.
Further budget cuts
As well as axing two public holidays, Mr Bayrou plans to freeze tax thresholds and welfare benefits, cut tax loopholes for high earners, rein back social and health spending, and freeze salaries and hiring in the French civil service.
He said his plans would trim the budget deficit to 4.8pc of GDP next year, down from 5.8pc now. The government hopes to ultimately cut it to 2.8pc by 2029.
France's debt-to-GDP ratio is 113pc, prompting Mr Bayrou to liken France's public finances to those of Greece and Spain during the eurozone crisis of the early 2010s.
He said France was in 'mortal danger' and faced 'a moment of truth'. 'It's the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt,' he said. 'It's late, but there is still time.'
France's long-term government bond yields have this week touched highs seldom seen since the eurozone crisis, as investors questioned whether Mr Bayrou and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, can get the country's finances back on track. Yields remained steady in Tuesday afternoon trading.
The fiscally hawkish Mr Bayrou does not command a majority in parliament, and only rammed the 2025 budget through the National Assembly in February using special constitutional powers.
The centrist PM has already survived eight no-confidence motions since taking office last December, often with the backing of either the relatively mainstream Socialist Party or Mr Bardella's RN.
National Rally has signalled its opposition not only to the bank holiday measure but to Mr Bayrou's broader austerity drive, suggesting the insurgent populist party might seek yet another no-confidence vote.
French politics has been in a state of near-paralysis since Mr Macron called a snap National Assembly election last July that resulted in a hung parliament.
The constitution forbids the president from triggering a second election within 12 months. With that period now elapsed, there has been speculation in recent weeks that he might dissolve parliament again.
Mr Macron on Sunday said parliament's opposition to his premier's budgets was hurting France economically, and holding up critical spending in areas like defence. He said defence spending, which totalled €50.5bn this year, should rise by €3.5bn next year and another €3bn in 2027.