Michel Barnier sent a clear message on November 11. During a speech to commemorate the Armistice, the Prime Minister underlined the debate on the removal of one public holiday out of the eleven on our calendar. Several ministers and elected officials who support the government are pleading in this direction in the name of tax revenue.
“Honoring the memory of these fighters is first of all having the memory of this tragic story, which is why I am happy to see you again on November 11, a public holiday to which we are attached,” said Michel Barnier, traveling to Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) for the inauguration of a reconstructed trench at the Museum of the Great War.
A little earlier in the day, the LR mayor of Meaux Jean-François Copé estimated on France Inter that there was “no need for a public holiday to commemorate”. “There are a thousand ways to commemorate without not working. Or that means that we have 65 million French people who are at the foot of the war memorials on November 11th. It would be known,” he assured.
The idea also circulated within the ranks of the government. “Establishing a second day of solidarity is a very interesting proposal,” argued at the end of October, on LCI, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Antoine Armand. “This is part of the debates that we will have in Parliament,” added the Budget Minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, on the same channel. I think that anything that allows our country to show that we can work harder to participate in the recovery effort is going in the right direction. »
