Could axing two national holidays save France from its mountain of debt?

Prime Minister François Bayrou has angered MPs with a bid to cut two public holidays to rescue the country's finances.

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Predictably enough, his proposal on Tuesday to axe the Easter Monday and 8 May holidays triggered howls of protest from the left and the populist right – with his own centrists and the conservative right expressing at best guarded support.

In a country with such a strong tradition of worker protest, the sudden removal of two statutory days off was never going to be an easy sell.

Essentially, men and women would be made to work two extra days a year for no increase in salary. The gain in productivity would help pull the country out of its ever-deepening hole of debt.

The French are indeed very attached to their jours fériés.