France’s prime minister has announced that Sunday trading will be permitted in major French towns and that museums will now open every day of the week.
The initiatives are part of France’s desperate reform attempts to bolster its flagging economy. The measures include ending the country’s 35-hour work week and dropping the top 75% tax rate by January.
Manuel Valls made the announcement during a visit to London, referring to it as “bad news to give you here in London”.
France has the world’s fifth largest economy and the second largest in Europe. He said he had given himself and his government one objective: to transform the country as the premier economic power of Europe.
He emphasized that France’s socialist government is pro-business.
He told his audience that he had accepted the apology from the John Lewis managing director who last week called France sclerotic, hopeless and downbeat.
Andy Street described France as a “finished” country where “nothing works and, worse, nobody cares about it”.
Street was not shy about attacking the retail award he received at a Paris business conference. The trophy, he said, was “made of plastic and is frankly revolting”. He added: “If I needed any further evidence of a country in decline, here it is. Every time [I see the award] I shall think, ‘God help France’”.
