Pave: Holy Ghost Is Back!

Le jour 261 de Sarko

A heat wave in August 2003 killed 14,800+ mostly elderly French folk. The government after determining it was blameless* (well, near blameless) proposed expanding elder care, assuming the filial solicitude of a nation on vacation. To pay for more state care, the government took away a religious holiday, the Monday after Pentecost, asking the working French to work an extra day for mémé et papy.

The first year was a bust.

Employees do not accept having to work an extra day. Care for the elderly is a real problem, no one can deny it. But the government's method for tackling it is not acceptable.

Jean-Claude Mailly,
Force Ouvrière minion,
making the case for selfishness
PARIS April 23, 2005 (IHT)

Bloody ridiculous. I don't object to giving up something for the elderly in principle, but I do object to being told how and when to do it.

Marcel Boulard,
a French doctor in principle,
making the case for personalized law
PARIS May 17, 2005 (Guardian)

The second year was a disaster.

The third year it had become an annual embarrassment, with nearly six in ten Frenchies blowing off solidarité.

This year the government gives back the Ghost.

FRANCE RESTORES PENTECOST AS HOLIDAY

PARIS January 29, 2008 (Forbes/AFX/Thomson Financial) - French authorities have restored Pentecost as an official holiday, a government source told Agence France-Presse.

The government failed to raise tax revenues as much as expected by striking Pentecost from the holiday calendar in 2006 [sic, 2005], as the public largely ignored the move. State-owned railway SNCF averted labour trouble by keeping the holiday and adding 1 minute 52 seconds to the year's other workdays.

The additional business day's worth of taxes was meant to finance health care for the elderly.

Another subtraction from the feeble Jack Shack legacy.

Ah, good luck, grammy. Good luck, grampy.

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* See our post here also.

PFFT (What is this?): Solidarity with mémé and papy 0 | Holy Ghost triumphant 3 | Rayonnement français 0