former minister Gérald Darmanin wants to “definitively end the 35-hour week” in the private sector

Minister of Public Accounts from 2017 to 2020, the Ensemble pour la République deputy considers that “we do not work enough in France” and develops his ideas to reduce public spending.

If Michel Barnier is looking for new ideas to find savings for the 2025 budget, he can read the interview given by Gérald Darmanin to EchoesSunday October 6. The former Minister of the Interior, who was also Minister of Public Accounts from 2017 to 2020, develops his ideas for significantly reducing public spending.

One of the main measures advocated by the former member of the government concerns the increase in working hours. “We can also definitively end the 35 hours in the private sector and return working time to dialogue in the company in exchange for profit-sharing and participation and move to 36 or 37 hours in the public sector, of course paid accordingly”defends the deputy Together for the Republic (EPR) of the North.

While the four-day week instead of five has been the subject of experiments for several years, Gérald Darmanin considers that“we don’t work enough” in France and that it must be remedied. The former mayor of Tourcoing, in the Lille suburbs, also wants to remove “a second public holiday in both the public and private sectors”.

In this interview, given while relations are tense between part of the government and the former presidential bloc, the executive of the Macronist camp puts forward other avenues for reducing public spending: “Implement a second waiting day for sick leave in the public service”, “sell” state stakes in companies like “Orange, FDJ, Stellantis or Engie” or even reform public broadcasting, a project advocated before him by Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture.

On the other hand, Gérald Darmanin is much more hostile to the increase in public revenue, which represents a third of the budgetary effort requested by Michel Barnier this fall. “A fiscal shock does not make an economic policy. And this path risks killing growth and creating mass unemployment”he warns, at a time when exceptional taxation of high incomes is defended by the government.