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.
Or, just tax the rich.
Right? Why is it always “make life harder for the working class” and never “make billionaires pay their fucking share”???
France has “only” 40 billionaires and also has the second-highest marginal tax rate in the EU at 55.4%. I know billionaires are the favourite whipping boy of the left and of Lemmy, and I support taxing them in general, but it won’t fix this problem.
There’s a difference between having high marginal taxes on the rich, and actually collecting them
Do you want France to have tax agents as effective as the IRS?
I’m French. I want them 100 times more effective. You have no idea how much the rich French love tax optimization (and fraud – it’s been estimated to 100+ bn/year a few years ago).
The average fortune growth of the top 500 French families for the last 20 years is 14% a year. They can spare a dime.
Not to mention that I keep hearing stories about the IRS getting budget cuts. You guys just have a seemingly-mistaken impression that the IRS knows it all because they have citizens run the numbers while also doing the math themselves due to corporate lobbying from turbotax and the like, but it’s actually a good thing when your tax office has good information. Y’all should concern yourselves with how politicians make them use it.
But they should reduce pensions because it only benefits older people who could be used for more research, defense and infrastructure.
If income increases, but you don’t manage it well, the problem won’t be solved.
why not just lift the age limit of pensions to 90, right?
the second-highest marginal tax rate in the EU at 55.4%.
Tax on what, labor income?
Because that is not what the rich live off. On the contrary it makes building wealth harder for the working class.Also how do you arrive at 55.4%?
All I could find was a marginal income tax rate of up to 45% + an additional 3-4% for incomes over 250k.
https://fr.icalculator.com/income-tax-rates/2025.html
Are you adding social security as well?I think what matters more is wealth disparity not actual wealth when discussing countries outside of the US. How much more wealthy are they than the average person in their country. You can’t just focus on wealth in terms of US dollars because there are parasites in each country with varying degrees of wealth in comparison to the average American billionaire.
When someone says “billionaires,” you can go ahead and include in that figure all those whose net worth is between 8 and 12 digits
In my opinion, the government shouldn’t be offering services left and right, just what’s necessary.
If people want freedom, that’s fine, but the government isn’t going to take on many responsibilities.
If people want comfort, that’s fine, but they should follow the rules the government imposes.
Yeah, that’ll go down well with the populace I’ll bet. Cue rioting and fires.
Knowing what I know of French history, I would never be a politician in France.
Yes because all the recent evidence definitely doesn’t suggest that productivity is increased with 4 day working weeks overall
Why? Because free time is good for people’s mental and physical health. You know who’s more productive than someone who doesn’t have time or energy to improve their health? Someone who does!
Truly baffling stuff
MoArE dAyS pAyDe MoArE mOnEyE
And God bless the French, they will burn Paris to the fucking ground for this. Meanwhile, in the U.S., congress just decimated what little public healthcare we have, and guys with Gadsden flag profile pics and handles like, “1776patriot,” actively cheered them on.
Meanwhile, the rich and the corporations don’t have to make any effort. There comes a time when they’ll have to grab some bourgeois to set an example. The French have forgotten that the bourgeoisie, like dogs, must be trained, otherwise they’ll do only shit
He’s not a fucking centrist…
Yeah, let’s not touch one cent of the 221 billion € each year given to large corporations, and instead stop celebrating the victory against Nazism.
Biggest public spending by far: gifts to private companies, going completely uncheck for decades, no one know what any of the 2000+ schemes are and why this money is given and for what and nothing is expected in return. But if we are missing 17 billions on healthcare budget, we are supposed to get screwed and shut up.
They’ll have his head for this
Easter Monday
France may not be very religious any more, but it looks like they do still have a lot of religious holidays:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_France
Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, Assumption Day, All Saint’s Day, Christmas Day, Saint Stephen’s Day.
Good Friday and Stephens are only for a very small portion of metropolitan France (former occupied territories that still have a few oddities like these)
Really? I thought most of Europe had the long easter weekend (good friday, easter monday) and Christmas day and boxing day (st stephens) as holidays?
Well, you can count France as not part of most of Europe in that regard, only the areas that were German between 1871 and 1918 have them as public holidays
I know someone from France with 36 vacation days 😅 36 !!!
Less than 2 month, not a lot. I have 31 by default and it’s the lower end of the norm
Jealiousy brought you to the point of laughing about others having it better than you, and accepting your horrible state as the norm.
Guess what? They have paid sick leave as well.
I bet you lament about billionaires and big corporations all day, not realising that they make the rules where you live. Why would you laugh at a country that values their citizens at least a bit instead of doing everything for the profit of the richest?
I would not jump into too many conclusions. My friend with 36 days of vacation said she’d prefer somewhat higher wage in France and would be happy with a few less days. To conclude I am jealous would mean you know me a bit. And you don’t. :)
