Scrapping two French bank holidays: Unfair or too much of a good thing? • FRANCE 24 English

Scrapping two French bank holidays: Unfair or too much of a good thing? • FRANCE 24 English

Now, as part of that proposed budget, the prime minister says that he could scrap two public holidays. That idea has been met with a lot of outrage on the political front and by the French people. But where does France stand when it comes to the number of holidays compared to other nations? Well, to dig a bit more deeply into all of this, I’m joined on the set by France 24’s Solange Mujan. So, Solange, do the French really have it better off when it comes to bank holidays? Well, not exactly. Uh when it comes to the number of bank holidays, it’s actually Cyprus that takes the winning position of 15 days off, followed by Spain, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta, Romania. They all have 14 days. Now, France currently has 11 public holidays per year, putting it smack dab in the middle, actually just a tiny little bit uh below the 11.7 days average in the EU. that EU figure does not take into account regional uh holidays which actually can quite can add up quite a bit. Uh uh there are a number of days for example in Germany and Spain as well but also in France the Alzas region actually has two more days than the rest of the country. So if Bro’s proposal goes through to remove two national public holidays, this would put France uh actually at the lowest EU level of 9 days which is currently also the case in the Netherlands, Denmark and without the lands or the regional state holidays uh Germany as well. However, public holidays are only part of the picture. We also have to take into account the national minimum number of days of vacation in countries. And this is where France gets its somewhat unfair, but not entirely unfair. It’s all relative uh reputation of having a lot of vacation time. France is in the top 10 of EU nations. When it comes to paid nonwork days, it’s Spain and Malta with 44 total days off. That uh is actually on top with France coming in seventh uh with its 36 days per year. And it’s actually the Netherlands that is at the bottom of the list with just 29 days off of public vacation and public holidays combined. Right. So let’s get back to this proposal by the prime minister. So removing a public holiday obviously or two public holidays is very controversial but also the dates the prime minister threw out there are part of it too. Yeah. Yeah they are. Now Bou said in his press conference that he’s open to other suggestions which personally makes me think that uh going for two days may be a means to get one day in the end amidst all the backlash but that is just a personal guess. Nonetheless, uh there has already been quite a lot of backlash among politicians and also of course workers. Getting rid of two public holidays is unacceptable. People work. Previous generations fought to have them and now they’re being taken away. I don’t understand. It’s inadmissible. I was expecting it honestly. In any case, they don’t have any other solution than taking from taxpayers. So, no. No, I’m not surprised. I find it disgusting, but that’s how it is. Now, Bro also said that he wants to end the griier effect of French holidays. He’s referring to the holes that you often have in Swiss cheese. Uh, and here he’s actually talking about the ability to put down a vacation day or two or three in the month of May. Uh, thanks to its many public holidays, this allows for de or bridges uh or very long extended weekends depending on say what day of the week May 8th uh falls on that year. Uh here BU wants to put an end to a month that is tricky in regard to economic output. According to Linsi, each bank holiday creates a loss of€1.5 billion euros in lost economic output. And on top of that, there’s the lost output of these long point weekends. And then there’s also a percentage of u employer or social charges that would be added to the state’s coffers by these canceled holidays. The government says that they’re looking at a boost according to them of 4.2 billion euros but of course this is a contestable estimate. As for Easter Monday who is said actually personally to be quite religious he says that Monday that Easter Monday doesn’t actually have a religious significance. This is an actually an issue that divides theologians and uh landed pack or Easter Monday is actually a remnant from when Napoleon got rid of the octave of Easter or the eight days off following Easter Sunday. So it was a bit of a compromise at the time in the 1800s with the church. As for the uh 8th of May, there’s much outrage about removing this holiday. It commemorates the end of World War II and the capitulation of the Nazis. Politicians across the political spectrum from the far right to the far left. Uh they have called this out. But the eighth of May holiday uh has actually gone through many different reand since being made a bank holiday in 1953. It was a Jeop or European day to celebrate the rapromon between France and Germany in 1975 and then it turned into a day to celebrate the second world war in 1981. All right. So, Slange, let’s say the worst happens and these days are taken away. Is there a precedent in other nations like this removing a bank holiday? Here in France, there is a precedent or semi-prec Monday. It was turned into a worked holiday in 2004 as a tribute to the some 15,000 people mostly elderly people uh who died in the heat wave of 2003. Now, the money from this unpaid workday for employees is actually put into a fund to help the elderly and the handicapped. There’s a bit of a controversy too about uh how that the some 36 billion euros in funds uh so far has been spent is or is not being spent and kept in the state’s coffers. That is another subject. As for presidents elsewhere, Portugal removed a holiday, its October 5th Republic Day as part of its austerity measures. It was then later reinstated after the economy got better. Denmark has also scrapped a military a holiday to boost military spending. There are also other precedents in other nations. Nonetheless, every time, everywhere, scrapping holidays is a shorefire way to make people unhappy because work, well, it’s great, but uh vacation is great, too. And it’s all about creating a balance, right? Exactly. It’s all about living to work. No, working to live. No, what’s that thing? Whatever that thing is. Work to live, don’t live to work. Exactly. I know. Something like that. Solange, thank you very much for coming in and telling us all about it. That’s 24 Solange Muja. Next at

As France’s prime minister suggests scrapping two public holidays as part of his budget plan, we take a look at how France compares to other EU nations when it comes to bank holidays and paid vacation days. We also find out why the choice of dates is proving controversial and how there are precedents to such a move, both in France and elsewhere. 
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