usatoday24
In France there are officially 11 holidays nationals per year, all established through Code du travail (Labor Code). In Spain, on the other hand, we cannot complain: “We enjoy” up to 14 of this type of day. It happens that the French have come up with an idea to refloat their maltrecha economy: start removing holidays from the labor calendar.
That Europe trembles.
Delete the party. French Prime Minister François Bayrou has presented One of the most radical and politically risky budgetary proposals of the last decades in France: freezing public spending, cutting pensions and social benefits, suppressing two national holidays and applying a new “solidarity contribution” to the great fortunes.
Its objective: prevent the country from succumbing under the weight of a public debt that this year It will devour 62,000 million of euros only in interest, an amount equivalent to the combined expense in defense and education. In an appearance that defined as “the moment of truth”, Bayrou warned that France runs the risk of falling into a debt crisis similar to that of Greece in 2008 if it does not act in decision, and launched a message to the citizens: “We have become addicted to public spending. We must all make an effort.”
The cost of two holidays. Among the most controversial measures, the holiday suppression of the Easter Monday And on May 8 (Victory Day), with which the Executive estimates Save 4,200 million of euros. France has 11 national holidays, compared to the eight of the United Kingdom or the 14 of Spain, which according to Bayrou is An incompatible luxury With the current fiscal situation.
The measure aims to increase the number of working days as an indirect tool To stimulate economic growth. But beyond immediate savings, the elimination of days of deep historical and cultural burden represents a high -voltage political challenge, one that has aroused a transverse rejection in Parliament and public opinion. The attack on collective memory symbols, in a country where the history of world wars is a national identity pillar, has turned the proposal into an emotional catalyst.
Structural austerity. Bayrou’s budget plan includes 44,000 million euros In tax and cuts increases. Among them, a general freezing of public spending by 2026 (which has been called A Année Blanche) without automatic inflation reviews, and without increases in pensions or social protection programs. This single measure would save 7.1 billion euros, the second largest component of the plan. The Rationalization of health expenditureincluding medications and low disease, as well as the unification of multiple social aid in a single payment with a stop, focused on low income.
Bayrou also wants Cut the benefits by unemployment and reduce its duration. The only exempt from adjustment is the debt service and the defense budget, which will increase by 10 % (6.5 billion euros) In direct order by Emmanuel Macron, in response to the deterioration of the international environment and Russian threat.
Suicidal political bet. He counted The Financial Times that, aware of the rejection that its plan causes throughout the political spectrum, Bayrou has been willing to Apply article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the budget to be approved without parliamentary vote, although with the risk of facing a motion of censure. This would be the same mechanism that led to the fall of its predecessor, Michel Barnierin 2023, for trying to unlink the pensions of the inflation index, an idea that Bayrou has now resumed.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the national regrouping, has not taken long In threatening to censor him If you do not withdraw your proposals, denouncing a plan that “attacks all French, the workers and retirees, instead of ending the waste.” The left considers the project as A “wild austerity” that aggravates inequality and leaves intact the privileges of capital. Mujtaba Rahman, director for Europe of the Eurasia Group analysis group, defined it as “A kamikaze maneuver”: A proposal that has no chance of being approved but puts on the table the magnitude of the fiscal problem.
A country on the edge. With a deficit 5.8% of GDP (the third highest in the EU after Romania and Poland) and a debt that is headed towards 115% of GDPFrance is at a critical crossing. If corrective measures are not applied, the cost of the debt could climb to 100,000 million of euros per year in 2029, becoming the largest structural burden of the budget.
Bayrou has designed a five -year plan to stabilize that debt/GDP ratio, with the ambition to reduce the 4.6% deficit in 2026 and 3% in 2029. But analysts have warned that such objectives could be “inaccessible” Given the political fragility of the government, parliamentary polarization and the foreseeable social resistance. In Bayrou words: “We know the risks perfectly,” but suggests that giving up the attempt would be even more dangerous.
Would it be possible in Spain? In Spain, the possibility of eliminating holidays nationwide is legally possible, but not unilateral or automatic, since it would require a normative reform and institutional negotiation. The reason? It’s not an exclusive competence of the central government and, unlike France, the Spanish system distributes this faculty between the State (fixed 8 days), the autonomous communities (set up to 4 days) and the municipalities (set up to 2 days).
Plus: Remember that 14 annual holidays per worker are a right recognized in the Workers Statutebut its concrete distribution is variable. The law allows some holidays to move to Monday, replace them with others or even suppress in specific years, provided that 14 days in total are respected.
France and a last act. In the case of France, rather than an economic proposal, Bayrou’s budget plan has acquired the form of a kind of Declaration of principles in front of a fractured country. It is the bet of a veteran politician who seems willing to assume the cost of impopularity to address A structural problem that most of their predecessors have avoided.
One thing is clear: parliamentary arithmetic is not on its side. His government depends on a centrist alliance without its own majority, and its only options to carry out the budget are the punctual support of the nationalist right or the moderate left, both today frontally opposed to the project.
And, meanwhile, the rest of Europe observes with cold sweats the French initiative.
Image | Phillip Capper
In Xataka | Labor calendar 2025: What are the holidays of each autonomous community in Spain
In Xataka | The countries with more paid and holiday vacations in the world, gathered in a detailed map
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings