Crisis-hit France yesterday unveiled a controversial package of reforms to unblock its stagnant economy, including a deeply divisive plan to extend Sunday opening hours for shops.
Minister of the Economy, Industry and Employment Emmanuel Macron presented the measures under the watchful eye of the EU and Germany, which has recently chided its neighbor for not doing enough to revamp its economy.
The measures include opening up traditionally closed professions — such as notaries and bailiffs — likely to spark the unusual sight of these white-collar workers hitting the streets to protest.
Other moves include opening up inter-city coach travel within France, and selling off between 5 billion and 10 billion euros (US$6.19 billion and US$12.38 billion) in state-owned assets.
However, it is the proposal to extend Sunday shopping that has touched off a firestorm of criticism, even among fellow members of the ruling Socialist Party.
Retail outlets may currently apply to local authorities to open on five Sundays per year, but Macron wants to expand that to 12. Shops situated in “international tourist zones” would also be allowed to open until midnight.
“Do we want millions and millions of tourists — notably Chinese — who come to the capital to leave us and go and do their shopping in London on a Sunday?” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a recent interview.
However, the left wing of the Socialist Party has said it plans to vote against the measures after a parliamentary debate, expected next month, believing it “casts doubt over all the historical battles of the [political] left.”
In a Socialist Party memorandum sent to Macron and obtained by reporters, deputies said it was “not necessary to move beyond five Sundays per year across the whole nation.”
Macron, a former Rothschild banker, has insisted the reforms are needed to “clear away the rigidities, lift the blockages, the glass ceilings and to allow our economy to function better, to flow better.”
The French economy is badly in need of a boost. Growth was a sluggish 0.3 percent in the third quarter, after two consecutive periods of zero growth.
Unemployment is stuck at a record high of 10.4 percent and French President Francois Hollande has vowed not to stand for re-election if he fails to reverse the trend.
Meanwhile, France, Europe’s second-largest economy, has found itself in hot water in Brussels and Berlin for its public deficit, which is expected to be above the 3 percent ceiling until 2017.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a pot shot at Paris over the weekend, saying French reforms were “insufficient,” and Brussels has slammed the “limited progress” made by Paris.
“There is no doubt that the French economy suffers from a lack of competition in domestic markets and some of the measures proposed by the government would help to tackle this issue,” IHS Global’s France analyst Diego Iscaro said.”
However, the devil is in the detail,” he told reporters, adding that there was “a relatively high risk of the bill being significantly diluted during the parliamentary process.”
Even if the reforms were approved and implemented in full, Iscaro said there were doubts over whether they would have a significant impact over the short term, “although they should help to lift the economy’s long-term growth potential.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was