French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has ignited a fresh dispute with labor unions by purchasing several baguettes at a village bakery on Labour Day, a move critics call a political stunt.
"Let's have several... at least four," Lecornu said as he paid at the bakery in Saint-Julien-Chapteuil, central France, before also buying flowers from a nearby shop. The visit was part of a government push to exempt independent bakeries and florists from mandatory closure on 1 May, a public holiday in France.
Under current law, only essential services like hospitals and hotels may remain open, with employees entitled to double pay. The legal status of bakeries and flower shops remains ambiguous.
Marylise Léon, General Secretary of France's leading union, condemned the prime minister's actions. "Politicians going to a bakery, I think that's part of a political spectacle that we don't need today. We need to show what the reality of a bakery worker is like," she said.
Earlier, Lecornu phoned a baker named Eric who had received a fine from labor inspectors for staying open on 1 May. The prime minister assured him he would not have to pay the potential €5,250 penalty (€750 per each of his seven employees working that day), according to French media BFMTV and Europe1.
This week, the government introduced a bill to allow bakeries and florists to open on Labour Day, subject to parliamentary approval. The proposal requires employees to volunteer in writing and mandates double pay.
The government argues bakers are "indispensable to the continuity of social life." However, unions warn that workers may feel pressured to volunteer or risk their jobs, and that exemptions could eventually become the norm.
In a joint statement in April, unions declared: "Social history shows us that each time a principle is undermined, exemptions gradually increase until they become the rule."