Removal of two public holidays: “François Bayrou is playing with fire”

To address the public deficit, François Bayrou wants to eliminate two public holidays. Timothée Duverger, historian, lecturer, and researcher at Sciences Po Bordeaux, criticizes an "outdated" vision of the world of work. Interview

A lecturer at Sciences Po Bordeaux, Timothée Duverger is head of the Territories of the Social and Solidarity Economy chair. He is also a researcher at the Émile Durkheim Center and president of the Observatory of Territories with Zero Long-Term Unemployment.

With 11 public holidays, is France an exception in Europe?

No, France is even below the European average of 12.07 days. Easter Monday, which François Bayrou proposes to abolish, is celebrated in around thirty countries around the world. Beyond that, public holidays, by combining religious festivals and historical events, embody two particular fields and, above all, two very distinct camps when it comes to defending them.

In 2004, after the historic heatwave of 2003, Jean-Pierre Raffarin also abolished a public holiday, making Whit Monday a day of solidarity with the elderly. What was the outcome?

First, as today, this proposal sparked controversy. But the implementation of this measure has mostly led to multiple workarounds. The logic of this day of solidarity to finance age-related policies has been diluted. So much so that in 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy restored Whit Monday to its status as a public holiday. It was therefore not a resounding success.

"The deterioration of working conditions cannot be denied"

François Bayrou, for his part, is targeting two public holidays: Easter Monday and May 8. A religious holiday and a historical date. A clever consensus?

By choosing a religious holiday and a historical date, he alienates both sides. The far right will oppose the questioning of Easter Monday's holiday status, in the name of France's supposedly Christian roots, and the left will also oppose the social nature of public holidays. He has just tripped himself up.

History has shown, however, that May 8, which was made a holiday in 1953, is not untouchable...

Yes. May 8 lost its holiday status in 1959, at the initiative of General de Gaulle. The liberator of France wanted to turn the page on the war, the defeat of Germany, and begin reconciliation. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing also abolished the May 8 commemorations. It was François Mitterrand, in 1981, who restored May 8 to its holiday status. I remind you that Easter Monday has also evolved. Napoleon reduced Easter week to a single holiday.

"May 8th also marks the defeat of Nazism; we cannot neglect that."

May 8 also marks the end of the Second World War. With the war in Ukraine, on the doorstep of Europe, it's not neutral either...

Yes, May 8 also marks the defeat of Nazism. In today's context, with the rise of populism, we cannot ignore this historical interpretation. Removing the holiday status of May 8 is a political mistake.

For employees, the elimination of two public holidays will result in working two more days without pay...

Materially, that's it. A public holiday is like an extra day off. Employees don't work, but they're paid. Moreover, when the public holiday falls on a vacation day, it's counted. The goal of the measure is to work more.

“Tackling public holidays means attacking the 30 million working people”

These two public holidays would bring in €4.2 billion to the state coffers. That's double the expected contribution of the wealthiest to this budgetary effort. Does that explain the feeling of injustice?

This draft budget makes no mention of revisiting tax breaks for businesses, nor of Emmanuel Macron's supply-side policy. This raises the question of tax fairness. A third of the debt since 2017 has been due to these tax breaks for businesses. In July, the Senate released a report showing that in 2023, large companies will have benefited from €211 billion in public aid. This aid is very poorly targeted and without much in return. Similarly, the government does not want a Zucman tax , which would introduce a tax on the wealth of the richest. While it would certainly not solve everything, it would generate revenue. Seen in this light, the reaction of employees, who will lose two public holidays, is understandable.

These are the assets that will be affected, it is potentially explosive...

Attacking public holidays means attacking the working population. And that's a lot of people, nearly 30 million people, representing almost half of the French population. We need to put this into a broader context. France has experienced a long social conquest, that of reducing working hours, with both the reduction of weekly work and the introduction of paid leave. However, for the past twenty years, this story has stalled. Especially with a phenomenon that is now documented: the deterioration of working conditions. The mobilization against pension reform can also be explained by this reality. Many employees find it difficult to finish their careers, if they are not unemployed. Eliminating two public holidays is playing with fire.

François Bayrou believes that "France does not work enough and does not produce enough." Does France have a problem with work?

This rhetoric is nothing new. It's even quite dated. It's always the same old clichés that are being used to push through these measures. The Economic Analysis Council , which provides data to the government, has shown this, and I quote: "The difference in the number of hours worked per capita compared to our European neighbors is entirely explained by the low French employment rate and not by the average number of hours worked per employed person." It seems to me that this is clear. We must also distinguish between legal working hours and actual working hours. Because the 35-hour week is not for everyone and is happily circumvented. I was just talking about seniors, but let's look at young people. Their employment rate is lower in France than elsewhere. Our young people are not lazy, but their entry into the world of work is complicated. And we cannot say that they benefit from social policies since they do not have access to the RSA... Afterwards, we can also, as certain Republican states in the United States are demanding, make children work.