The formalization was expected.

In a message posted on Instagram Wednesday, September 23, French President Emmanuel Macron detailed the decision to extend paternity leave to "one month" in 2021.

"We are going to increase paternity leave to one month, one month in which there will be seven compulsory days for each young dad," said the Head of State, after the Council of Ministers.

The day before, the Elysee had announced that the duration of paternity leave would be reduced from 14 to 28 days, adding that the compulsory part had not yet been arbitrated.

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A post shared by Emmanuel Macron (@emmanuelmacron) on Sep 23, 2020 at 6:22 am PDT

A measure long demanded

Long demanded by feminist activists, unions and many fathers, the extension of this leave had been the subject of several petitions.

"This decision is a step forward", welcomed Emmanuel Macron.

He recalled that it was "above all a measure which is favorable to equality between women and men", "great cause of the five-year term", and that "it is on this that there was a very strong mobilization ".

The measure will be included in the 2021 Social Security financing bill (PLFSS), which will shortly be presented to the Council of Ministers.

Its extension will be financed by Social Security at a cost also doubled and estimated at more than 500 million euros in a full year.

The three days of birth leave will always be paid by the employer, and the following 25 days will be compensated by Social Security.

From Julien Bayou (EELV) to Julien Aubert (LR), political representatives widely welcomed this progress on Tuesday, left-wing elected officials pleading, however, for the leave to be extended further.

For Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women's Foundation, this measure "will go in the right direction" after months of pregnancy and childbirth "exhausting" for women, followed by numerous treatments and administrative procedures related to the arrival of 'a child.

"And if we could take the opportunity to change his name ... It's not a holiday because it's far from a vacation," she adds on Twitter.

The compulsory part: a step forward but too short

For Thibaut Pradinas, at the origin of a petition calling for its extension to four weeks, which had found a lot of echo in 2017, it is "a victory, even if the time has been long", he explained before the details given by Emmanuel Macron.

“The good news is that it is compulsory”, explained the member of the “Parents et Féministes” association.

Currently, seven out of ten fathers take this optional leave, a figure which conceals strong social inequalities: 80% of employees on CDI use it, against less than 60% of those on CDD.

However, the news of a mandatory duration of only seven days, however, cooled enthusiasm in the association.

"Seven obligatory days. Our enthusiasm falls like a cheese souffle," she tweeted after the announcements.

7 days compulsory.


Our enthusiasm subsides like a cheese souffle. # Congepaternite

- Parents & Feminists (@PFeministes) September 23, 2020

The worried bosses

On the side of the bosses, we are worried about the costs.

The employers' organization of French SMEs (CPME) fears that the measure "will quickly result in an increase in family employer contributions", while welcoming that its cost is not borne by companies.

"If we can understand the purpose (...) we can regret that this announcement comes in a particularly tense period economically for a large number of VSE-SMEs", argues the CPME.

[Communiqué #CPME] #congepaternite If we can understand that this measure promotes equality between women and men, it comes in a particularly tense period economically for a large number of #VSE #SME



Read the

PR

👉https: //t.co/D1Z87Z9P2y pic.twitter.com/bZawyVljxB

- CPME (@CPMEnationale) September 23, 2020

According to the deputy chairman of Medef, Patrick Martin, the extension of paternity leave from 14 to 28 days will cost companies "300 million euros", regretting a measure which will "necessarily create complexities and costs for companies ".

He stresses, however, that this "goes in the direction of history".

France can go further

France could have gone further.

The Cyrulnik commission report on the “first 1,000 days” of the newborn, published in early September, recommended extending paternity leave to nine weeks.

With this extension, France will "join the peloton of the five most advanced European countries in this area", Spain, Finland, Norway, and Portugal, we want to boast on the Elysee side.

However, in April 2019, a European directive could have granted four months to young parents without distinction of sex.

But, at the time, Emmanuel Macron had done everything to limit the scope of this new European legislation because of its "potentially exorbitant" cost.

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