The co-manager of a bulk transport SME in the village of Saint-Blaise, north of Nice, is offering a bonus of 50 euros to his employees who voted in the legislative elections. The vote does not matter, including a blank or invalid vote, but you will have to present a voter card with the stamps of both rounds.
To combat abstention, the co-manager of a bulk transport SME in the village of Saint-Blaise, north of Nice, is offering a bonus of 50 euros to his employees who have voted in the legislative elections. The vote does not matter, including a blank vote or an invalid vote, but you will need to present a voter card with stamps from both rounds. Among the 70 employees of Courbaisse Transports, based in the Var plain, many “are a little defeatist”, explained to AFP the co-manager, Pascal Biscroma, confirming information from the daily Nice-Matin. “The general spirit is: ‘why am I going to vote? It’s no use, nothing can be done the way we want it to be done.’
“We are lucky to live in a democracy”
Faced with this “relaxation with regard to civic action”, he decided to propose this financial incentive of 50 euros, a sum “which represents a lot for some employees, and for the majority” of French people. “We are lucky to live in a democracy” often cited “in reference to the international” and the motto “liberty, equality, fraternity” is not “just words”, argued Pascal Biscroma, who manages with his brother the company transporting in particular sand and garbage. “All of this is fighting, values which risk disappearing in the long term”, he added.
Pascal Biscroma assured AFP that he had not seen similar initiatives in other companies and that the idea came to him while thinking about the phenomenon of abstention, which rose to 45% in Saint-Blaise during the European elections on June 9 (48.51 in France). Simply “spreading the good word” in favor of voting to his employees would not have had much impact, he estimated. If they all vote, his initiative will cost him a total of 3,500 euros, which represents “a great effort (…) but we will really pay them with a smile,” he assured.
