【新闻趣读】
法国总理最近想出了一个"省钱妙招"——砍掉两个法定假日！这位总理大人打算把复活节周一和5月8日二战胜利日从假期表里划掉，理由是"国家债务太高"。消息一出，法国人立刻炸锅：左派骂他"剥削劳工"，右派说他"破坏传统"，就连他所在的中右翼阵营也只能勉强支持。最搞笑的是，法国人每年5月都在玩"搭桥"游戏（把周二或周四的假日和周末连起来休），这下总理直接要把"桥"给拆了！不过话说回来，法国人虽然假期多，但工作效率比英国人还高18%——看来英国人也没资格笑话人家"太懒"啊~
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**Could axing two national holidays save France from its mountain of debt?**
**取消两个法定假日能拯救法国的债务危机吗？**
**11 hours ago Share Save Hugh Schofield BBC News in Paris Share Save**
11小时前 BBC记者休·斯科菲尔德发自巴黎
**Getty Images The French have 11 public holidays a year, an average number for a European country**
盖蒂图片社：法国每年有11个公共假日，在欧洲国家中处于平均水平
**Prime Minister François Bayrou has put the cat among the pigeons in promising to cut two of France's national holidays in order to rescue the country's finances.**
法国总理弗朗索瓦·贝鲁承诺取消两个法定假日以挽救国家财政，这一表态引发了轩然大波。
**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.**
不出所料，他周二关于取消复活节周一和5月8日（二战胜利日）假期的提议引发了左翼和民粹右翼的强烈抗议——而他所在的中右翼和保守右翼最多只能表示谨慎支持。
**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.**
在一个有着强烈工人抗议传统的国家，突然取消两个法定假日从来都不是件容易的事。
**Essentially, men and women would be made to work two extra days a year for no increase in salary.**
本质上，法国人每年将被迫多工作两天，而且不会加薪。
**The gain in productivity would help pull the country out of its ever-deepening hole of debt.**
由此带来的生产力提升将有助于法国摆脱日益深重的债务危机。
**The French are indeed very attached to their jours fériés.**
法国人确实非常依恋他们的法定假日。
**The month of May is awaited with glee every year, not just because it heralds spring – but also because of the succession of long weekends that regularly occur.**
每年五月都令人期待，不仅因为它预示着春天的到来，还因为经常会出现一连串的长周末。
**If 1 May (Workers' Day) and 8 May, marking the end of World War Two, fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, then the weekends become four-day treats because the Monday and the Friday will automatically be taken as holiday too.**
如果5月1日（劳动节）和5月8日（二战胜利日）落在周二或周四，那么周末就会变成四天的享受，因为周一和周五也会自动成为假日。
**On top of that there is Ascension (always a Thursday) plus Easter Monday and Whit Monday (or Pentecost).**
除此之外，还有耶稣升天节（总是在周四）、复活节周一和圣灵降临节周一（或五旬节）。
**If the Church calendar obliges, an early Easter can combine with 1 or 8 May to provide not just a pont or bridge - meaning a four-day weekend spanning a Monday or Friday, but a veritable five or six-day viaduc (viaduct).**
如果教会日历允许，早到的复活节可以与5月1日或8日结合起来，不仅形成一个"桥"（即跨越周一或周五的四天周末），而且是一个名副其实的五天或六天"高架桥"。
**November is another feast of feasts, with All Saints' on the first of the month and Armistice on the 11th offering relief from autumn blues.**
十一月是另一个节日盛宴，11月1日的万圣节和11日的停战日让人们从秋天的忧郁中得到解脱。
**And on top of that, there are the famous"RTT" days, which many get in return for working more than the legal 35 hours a week.**
除此之外，还有著名的"RTT"日（减少工作时间），许多人因为每周工作时间超过法定的35小时而获得这些额外的休息日。
**But before we lapse into humorous self-satisfaction about"those incredibly lazy French and their God-given right to endless downtime", we need to bear in mind a couple of other considerations.**
但在我们陷入对"那些懒惰的法国人及其上帝赋予的无限休息权"的幽默自满之前，我们需要考虑其他几个因素。
**First, far from the popular image, the French actually have fewer national holidays than the European average.**
首先，与普遍印象相反，法国的法定假日实际上比欧洲平均水平要少。
**France has 11, like Germany, the Netherlands and US. Slovakia has the most, with 15, and England, Wales, and the Netherlands have the fewest, with 8. Ireland and Denmark have 10.**
法国有11个假日，与德国、荷兰和美国相同。斯洛伐克最多，有15个；英格兰、威尔士和荷兰最少，只有8个；爱尔兰和丹麦有10个。
**Second, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics, French productivity (output per worker) is 18% higher than the UK's, So any gloating about holidays from across the Channel is misplaced.**
其次，根据英国国家统计局的统计，法国的生产力（每个工人的产出）比英国高18%，所以任何对海峡对岸假日的幸灾乐祸都是不恰当的。
**Third, this is not the first time in recent years that France has proposed to axe national holidays.**
第三，这不是法国近年来第一次提议取消法定假日。
**It has happened before – and worked (kind of).**
以前就发生过——而且（某种程度上）奏效了。
**In 2003, the conservative government under President Jacques Chirac wanted to do something radical after the deadly heatwave of that summer which killed 15,000 people.**
2003年，在造成1.5万人死亡的致命热浪之后，希拉克总统领导的保守派政府想要采取一些激进的措施。
**So Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin decided to turn Whit Monday into a Day of Solidarity.**
因此，总理让-皮埃尔·拉法兰决定将圣灵降临节周一改为"团结日"。
**People would work instead of taking the day off, and the money gained by employers would be paid to the government for a fund to help the elderly and disabled.**
人们在这一天工作而不是休息，雇主因此获得的钱将交给政府，用于帮助老年人和残疾人的基金。
**There was an outcry, and a few years later the change was watered down so that now the Day of Solidarity is voluntary.**
这一决定引发了强烈抗议，几年后这一改变被淡化，现在"团结日"是自愿的。
**It is all highly confusing, and no-one really understands how it functions, but non-Whit Monday still generates €3bn (£2.6bn; $3.5bn) every year in receipts.**
这一切都非常令人困惑，没有人真正理解它是如何运作的，但非圣灵降临节周一每年仍能带来30亿欧元（26亿英镑；35亿美元）的收入。
**Another precedent goes back to the 1950s and Charles de Gaulle.**
另一个先例可以追溯到20世纪50年代和戴高乐时期。
**Getty Images Charles de Gaulle took office as president in 1959 and then axed a public holiday**
盖蒂图片社：戴高乐1959年就任总统后取消了一个公共假日
**The wartime leader took office as president in 1959 and then axed a public holiday (Whit Monday again) in order to help pay for the Algerian war.**
这位战时领导人于1959年就任总统，然后取消了一个公共假日（又是圣灵降临节周一），以帮助支付阿尔及利亚战争的费用。
**The difference was that in those days, the president could do this by decree.**
不同的是，在当时，总统可以通过法令这样做。
**Nowadays, the government would need to pass a law – and that means getting it through parliament.**
如今，政府需要通过一项法律——这意味着要让它通过议会。
**And with the left and far-right opposed, and even the government's own supporters lukewarm, that is not going to be easy.**
由于左翼和极右翼的反对，甚至政府自己的支持者也不冷不热，这并非易事。
**But with France's debt now standing at more than 110% of GDP, and the EU's new fiscal rules demanding deficit reduction, the government says it has no choice.**
但由于法国债务现已超过GDP的110%，而且欧盟的新财政规则要求减少赤字，政府表示别无选择。
**"We have to look at all possible ways of raising productivity," Mr Bayrou said.**
"我们必须考虑所有可能提高生产力的方法，"贝鲁先生说。
**"And given that we cannot ask for more effort from French workers without giving them something in return, this seems like a reasonable sacrifice."**
"鉴于我们不能在不给予回报的情况下要求法国工人付出更多努力，这似乎是一个合理的牺牲。"
