NATIONAL NEWS ♦ 9
NOVEMBER 2014 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu
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Indian summer boost to tourism There was a surprise boost for tourism in France during October when temperatures rocketed to an unseasonal high in parts of the country. The hottest place to be was Biarritz where the mercury topped 30°C over the weekend of 18/19 October, but temperatures also got as high as 25°C in Paris. According to France's meteorological agency, Météo France, these were the highest temperatures recorded for this time of year since 1954 - the average is typically 16°C in the north and 19°C in the south. As people across the country took advantage of the warm weather, many headed to the beach. One volunteer lifeguard group in Biarritz even reported for duty due to the large number of swimmers taking to the water. ■
Le Pen to go to driving school The leader of the far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen, will have to take a driving course to regain her licence after she failed to convince a judge that she should never have lost it. Although the news has only now been made public, Le Pen initially lost her licence in 2012 after a series of 8 offences, but has spent the last 2 years challenging that ruling, claiming that it was in fact her chauffeur who had been driving her car. “In reality, these offences were not committed by me. While using a chauffeur to drive my own car I suffered the loss of these points because I didn’t want to get the driver in trouble,” she said at a hearing in October. The judge at the court in Lille disagreed and Le Pen must now pay to take a driving course. Successfully completing this course will see four points returned to her licence and will allow her to drive again. ■
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Health system reforms
T
he government presented a package of 50 health reforms in a draft bill to parliament in October. As part of the changes, patients would no longer have to pay up front to visit their GP and a doctor would be available 24 hours a day by phone. The bill would also like to see a new offence introduced for “encouraging binge drinking”. Under the current system, patients pay their GP for a consultation and then reclaim the cost from the healthcare system via a valid carte vitale. This is different to a visit to the pharmacy where pharmacists are able to check a patient's cover via their carte vitale and also whether they have mutuelle top-up cover. Provided they have full cover no money changes hands and the pharmacist is reimbursed directly by the State. If the proposals are adopted, then a visit to the doctor will follow this basis. “If the tiers-payant works at pharmacies, it should be able to work everywhere else,” said Health Minister Marisol Touraine, when first proposing the changes late last year. She admitted that there was “a considerable technical challenge” in linking doctors surgeries with the estimated 400 different mutuelles in France, but said “it will be a major advance for patients”. The other big change contained
in the reforms is the introduction of a specific offence for encouraging binge drinking; breaking this new law could land offenders with a €15,000 fine and a year in jail. Binge drinking amongst the young is still seen as a very British problem and “la beuverie express” is most often referred to in France using the English term "le binge drinking". It is now officially defined in France as “the massive intake of alcohol, generally in a group, aiming at causing drunkenness in the shortest possible time”. No details were given by the health minister as to how any law, if passed by parliament, would be enforced. It is hoped that the new law could put an end to “bizutages” – initiation ceremonies carried out at universities and higher education establishments, which often involve
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encouraging new students to get dangerously drunk. Touraine said combatting alcohol abuse among the country's youth was a “priority”. “It will be made illegal to sell products that make alcohol appear pleasant,” she told RTL radio, adding that these products included “telephone cases or T-shirts that show amusing scenes based on drunkenness”. Elsewhere in the bill are plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, the banning of smoking in cars transporting under-12s and also a ban on e-cigarettes in some public places. Most controversially, the bill includes plans for the long-discussed “shooting galleries” - dedicated locations where intravenous drug users can inject with clean needles and under supervision from health workers. ■
Major child benefit changes One of the pillars of the French welfare system has always been universal child benefits: if you have 2 or more children, then you receive a fixed child benefit payment each month, whether you are the president or a plumber. This is all now set to change following the government's announcement that child benefit payments will be linked to income from July 2015. For households earning more than €6,000 per month the benefit payment will be halved and for those earning more than €8,000 the payment will be a quarter of the base figure. Government figures suggest that the changes could save €400 million in 2015, rising to €800 million in 2016 and each subsequent year. Despite these large savings, and the fact that only 13% of the wealthiest households would be affected, the fundamental changes to the child support system have come under widespread attack. François Fondard, president of the Union nationale des associations familiales (Unaf), said: “The principle of universality was already fragile. This reform signs its death certificate and transforms our family and social politics.” “It’s a measure of social justice,” said MP Marie-Françoise Clergeau, who is leading the family section of the 2015 budget, speaking to Les Echos. “We are letting families with modest means and middle incomes hold on to their spending power.” The MP went on to argue that the principle of universality had not been compromised, as “all families will [still] receive benefits”. ■