The project for a second day of solidarity to finance autonomy returns to the debate in the Senate this week. It brought back memories in Nîmes. The removal of Pentecost Monday, the last day of the feria, sparked an outcry.
Before the examination in the Senate of the Social Security financing bill from Wednesday, November 13, the creation of a second day of solidarity to finance autonomy (Ehpad), with the elimination of a public holiday, makes its way. A proposal that echoes what was proposed just 20 years ago by Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a year after the terrible heatwave of 2003.
Senators from the Les Républicains party, elected officials from Macronie, and even members of the Barnier government do not take a dim view of this. In Nîmes, this debate brings back bad memories since there was talk at the time of removing Pentecost Monday as a public holiday. “This angered Mayor Jean-Paul Fournier”remembers the Gard senator LR Laurent Burgoa, an elected official from Nîmes who knew that era well.
For the people of Nîmes, the removal of this public holiday could curtail the Pentecost fair. “The feria is dead!”had even launched the delegate of bullfighting shows Simon Casas.
The latter planned to set up four days of feria around Ascension Thursday and three days the following week for the weekend before Pentecost. “It’s a dramatic decision with losses of more than €2 million for the local economy”confided Jean-Paul Fournier in 2004, exasperated and aware of the need for a solidarity day. In France, the unions had also stepped up strongly.
Holiday again in 2008
After having been a day of solidarity, Pentecost Monday has been a public holiday again since 2008, in any case not reserved for work. Employers can therefore choose another day. “Pentecost Monday is already affected by this day of solidarity. For the moment, we are at the hypothesis stage”however, indicates Laurent Burgoa.
The senator specifies that he will be attentive to the debates on the Social Security financing bill in the coming days. Nor should the second day of solidarity remove Ascension Thursday as a public holiday, for example, which would put the Alès feria or even the pilgrimage from Santa Cruz to Nîmes into difficulty.
In the Senate, everything seems open, including the fact of not touching public holidays but of spreading the seven hours of work over the year.
Xavier Douais (CPME) in favor of this proposal
Nîmes elected official and entrepreneur, Xavier Douais, national vice-president of the CPME, indicates that he is in favor of “everything that allows the increase in the work quota. The solidarity measure made it possible in 2023 to bring in €2.2 billion. There is a point of vigilance: it is on productivity gains and we must that it concerns all employees. I am for a real day of solidarity so that people understand things clearly.
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