France’s Prime Minister François Bayrou has proposed cutting two public holidays as part of a 2026 budget proposal to slash overall spending while also increasing defence expenses.
Bayrou suggested axing Easter Monday and 8 May, a day that commemorates the Allied victory at the end of World War Two in Europe.
He said the various bank holidays had turned the month of May into a gruyère – a Swiss cheese full of holes – although he added he was open to other suggestions.
Bayrou runs the risk of having his budget voted down in parliament in the autumn, which could eventually cause his government to collapse.
But on Tuesday he stressed that France – the eurozone’s second economy – was “in mortal danger” of being crushed by debt.
Standing in front of a lectern emblazoned with the words “The moment of truth”, Bayrou spoke for over an hour outlining a series of daring measures that he said should bring the annual budget deficit under control.
These include a freeze on public spending for next year, ending tax breaks for the wealthy and a reduction in the number of civil servants.
The budget also needs to factor in President Emmanuel Macron’s call for France’s defence spending to rise by €3.5bn (£3bn) next year and then by a further €3bn in 2027.
But the proposal to cut the two May public holidays was the most eye-catching suggestion. Bayrou said Easter Monday had “no religious significance”, and the whole nation had to work and produce more.
His idea made headlines immediately – and drew condemnation from several sides.
The far-right National Rally (RN) party damned it as an attack on French history and on French workers, while Green party leader Marine Tondelier lamented that the day that commemorated victory against Nazism would no longer be a holiday.
Pressed by reporters after his speech, Bayrou said his proposal was “basic arithmetic”.
“If we want to stay on course, we need to find more than €40bn,” Bayrou argued, referring to the €43.8bn France needs to slash from its budget to rein in debt, which he said grows by €5,000 every second.
The French government aims to bring the deficit down from 5.8% last year to below 4.6% next year and to under 3% by 2029, Bayrou said.
The embattled centrist prime minister has only been in the job since December, following on from the short-lived premiership of Michel Barnier.
Barnier’s government used executive powers to push his own bill that sought to rein in France’s deficit through an even harsher budget than Bayrou’s.
The move proved unacceptable to the National Rally and left-wing parties, which all voted against Barnier, causing the government to collapse through a no-confidence vote for the first time since 1962.
The same factions are now threatening to do it again when Bayrou’s budget is put to a vote in the autumn.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) said that the PM had to be ousted, while RN leader Marine Le Pen accused Bayrou of preferring to “attack the French, workers and pensioners, instead of slashing wastage”, and vowed to bring him down “if he doesn’t revise his plans”.
But Bayrou said his government “wanted to change things” to restore public finances and would do so “despite the risk” of a no-confidence vote.
Since last summer’s surprise snap election the French parliament has been deeply divided into three blocs that have resisted working together. Another election may well result in a similar deadlock.
If Bayrou’s government collapses President Macron will have to choose a successor or appoint an unelected technocrat government – neither of which would be palatable to MPs.
His own popularity is under 25% and there has been a clamour for him to step down sooner than the end of his second term in 2027 – something he has consistently resisted.
