Two days less holiday? France is up in arms but my sympathy is limited | Paul Taylor

This small cutback is hardly a draconian austerity purge for a country that is broke. But the howls of outrage show a rational debate is unlikely

France is skint, but the French are in denial. To judge by the howls of outrage from the left and the hard right of the French political spectrum, you would think the prime minister, Francois Bayrou, had just taken a Javier Milei-style chainsaw to public services, announced Doge-style mass layoffs or imposed swingeing pay cuts.

But it was Bayrou's suggestion that the French should give up two of their 11 cherished public holidays - Easter Monday and 8 May, the anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe - and work instead to increase economic output and hence government revenue that provoked the anger.

Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre