The French government is facing increasing criticism as bad news keeps hitting the economy. There is a rise in bankruptcies and restructuring plans, alongside calls for strikes at Air France, the national rail company SNCF, and within the civil service. Additionally, a new wave of unrest is spreading among farmers. This unrest, stemming from economic difficulties and budgetary austerity measures, is increasingly putting pressure on Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his coalition.
The unpleasant episode Industry Minister Marc Ferracci experienced on Friday, November 8, is a case in point. On his way to meet employees at the Michelin plant in Cholet which, like the facility in Vannes, is due to close by 2026, Ferracci was met with vigorous protests from workers, forcing him to leave quickly. His team put things into perspective, pointing out that the booing only lasted a few minutes, even though he had been on site for three hours, and that people from outside the company had taken part. However, the clash highlighted the social tensions the government is currently grappling with.
Although the number of redundancies and non-renewed temporary employment contracts remains lower today than during the 2008 economic crisis, Barnier's team is keeping a close eye on the economic indicators, noting a worrying trend. The so-called "job-saving" plans, which actually consist of cuts in the workforce, "have been multiplying since 2023 and will continue to do so," Labor Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet acknowledged to MPs on Tuesday. "It's a combination of structural problems in certain sectors and a cyclical situation," she explained. Three days earlier, on France Inter, Ferracci hadn't tried to paint a rosy reality. "There will probably be announcements of site closures in the coming weeks and months," he said, mentioning "thousands of jobs" possibly being lost.
While the painful decisions taken at Michelin or the supermarket chain Auchan cannot be directly blamed on the government, other sources of unrest are emerging as a result of political decisions. This is especially evident in the civil service, where the prospect of a strike in the coming weeks seems increasingly certain. On Tuesday, the eight main unions representing civil servants met to discuss a possible fightback against the government's desire to tighten the conditions for sick leave compensation. They are all united in their opposition to the plan.
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