Latest news with #Fêtenationale
Local France
2 days ago
- Business
- Local France
What's happening in France in summer 2025
Rail strikes - the Sud-Rail union has filed a three-month strike notice, running from June 12th to September 8th. This doesn't mean three solid months of disruption, but it means that the union can call one-day or multi-day strikes at any time during this period, although they say they intend to give at least five days notice of planned actions. Find the latest updates here . Airline strikes - The busy summer holiday period is normally peak strike season for workers in the airline industry, whether that is airport staff, workers at individual airlines or air traffic controllers. At the time of writing no industrial action has been announced, but you can keep up with the latest in our strike section . Paris transport closures - every year the Paris public transport operators have a schedule of repairs and maintenance for the summer which involves line closures and disruption. The logic behind this is that public transport is a lot quieter in the summer as so many Parisians are away - this year there is a particularly extensive schedule of closures on the Metro, tram and RER lines - full details here . Elections? - last summer president Emmanuel Macron called snap parliamentary elections to try and break the deadlock in the Assemblée nationale. This did not work as planned, and in fact the deadlock is now worse. The Constitution states that the president must wait a year before calling fresh elections - Macron could, therefore, call elections from July, although it would be very unlikely that they would be held over the summer. Advertisement One thing we do know is that Macron will be giving the traditional presidential TV address to the nation on July 14th, in which he may or may not announce an election or policy changes. Debt plan - France is currently sitting under the 'sword of Damocles', according to prime minister François Bayrou, because of the country's spiralling deficit. Bayrou has issued several warnings about the deficit and its impact on the country, and has said that he will present a detailed plan of spending cuts "at the beginning of July". School holidays - French schoolkids get a decent chunk of holiday in the summer. The school year ends on Friday, July 4th (or July 5th for those schools that have Saturday morning classes), and restarts on Monday, September 1st. Public holidays - French adults get some holiday too, there are two public holidays over the summer period; the Fête nationale (aka Bastille Day) on Monday, July 14th and the Christian festival of Assumption on Friday, August 15th. Red letter days on the roads - with all that holiday travel, things get busy on the roads and the railways. Keep an eye on the French traffic forecaster Bison futé for the detailed traffic predictions but key travel weekends are the weekend of July 4th/5th, as the schools break up, the two above mentioned public holiday weekends and the final weekend of July, first of August - known as the chasé-croisé or crossover weekend as the July holidaymakers return and the August ones set out. Advertisement Property tax declaration - one for property-owners in France, if you've moved house in France or otherwise changed your status in the past year you may have complete the property tax declaration known as the déclaration d'occupation or déclaration des biens immobilers. It must be submitted by June 30th. Summer sales - the second of France's state-controlled sales periods is in the summer. This year the sales run from Wednesday, June 25th, until Tuesday, July 22nd. Festivals - summer is peak festival season in France with dozens of festivals all over the country each week - here's out pick of 29 of the best. Tour de France - this year won't have the excitement of the Paris Olympics, but when it comes to high-level sport there is still the Tour de France. This year, the famous cycle race returns to its traditional finish point on the Champs-Elyées, with an added loop through the historic Paris district on Montmartre .
CBC
28-01-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Quebec to table 'social contract' bill for immigrants amid cuts to integration programs
The Quebec government is planning to table a bill on Thursday to define a new integration model for immigrants, with the aim of making clear to them that Quebec is a nation, the immigration minister announced. Jean-François Roberge, Quebec's minister responsible for immigration and the French language, said on Tuesday it was "about time" the government created mechanisms to ensure immigrants or "people who identify themselves as members of cultural minorities" are adhering to what he described as Quebec's common culture. "We don't want ghettos. We want one society," Roberge told reporters in Quebec City. Interculturalism — the integration model the provincial government favours over Canada's multiculturalism approach — emphasizes the primacy of Quebec francophone culture in a pluralist society. However, the absence of a legal framework for interculturalism has made the integration model insufficient, Roberge said on Tuesday, alluding to the possible violations of the secularism law in some public schools. "We have a culture. We have some democratic values. Men and women are equal. People coming here must accept that," he said. "After, we want them to contribute to the society." While Roberge did not provide details on the upcoming bill, he said it would be based on the principle of reciprocity, noting that Quebec is "building a new social contract." Asked to explain how he wants immigrants to contribute concretely, Roberge said he wants them "to go outside their communities and go speak with us" and attend Fête nationale events. "We want to see them in our shows. We want to see them in our movies. We want to see them everywhere. They are welcome," Roberge said. Premier François Legault spent the lion's share of an afternoon news conference discussing U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threat, which, if imposed, would devastate the Quebec economy. But Legault said despite the looming economic crisis, he wasn't willing to forget about what he described as his other main priority: protecting Quebec values and Quebec identity. "I think we can work on both priorities," he said. Conflicting with cuts to integration programs According to data provided to Radio-Canada by the province's French language commissioner, the number of people enrolled in French courses essentially more than doubled in a year. In 2023, between June 1 and Sept. 30, there were 13,591 students enrolled in classes. For the same period in 2024, the number of students was 32,040. But in September, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government announced it would be ending financial support for people enrolled in part-time French-language courses and reduce funding for French-language learning to match the amounts allocated in 2020-2021. The decision led to the cancellation of French-language courses across the province, with many teachers facing job loss. By December, after public outcry, the government pledged $10 million to allow school service centres to reopen the French classes that they were forced to shut down due to a lack of funding. Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said on Tuesday that "it's a bit late" for the Legault government to introduce an integration model after cutting spending to French-language programs and not having full powers over immigration. "If Canada doesn't agree with that model … how do you defend staying within Canada while knowing that Canada will impose on you its model and its models of integration?" St-Pierre Plamondon said. "That is the fundamental contradiction of the CAQ and it has never been resolved." Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal also referenced what she called the incoherence of the government's messaging, saying Roberge's bill seems mainly to announce "good principles." She said the government should stop "pointing to immigration as the cause of all the problems that the government creates," such as issues related to public services and housing. Quebec Liberal Party interim leader Marc Tanguay said his party is open to discussing integration issues, but the bill "won't advance Quebec culture" if the government continues to cut millions of dollars from the education system. "Integration is, first of all, the French language, and they're not giving the classes," Tanguay said.
