The duration of paternity leave will double and go from 14 to 28 days, in July 2021. A measure that goes in the right direction, greeted Tristan Champion, author and activist of paternity leave, Wednesday on Europe 1. But according to him, he must go further and make it mandatory.

Emmanuel Macron is to announce on Wednesday the extension of paternity leave, from 14 to 28 days.

This measure, which will come into force in July 2021, was welcomed by Tristan Champion, creator of the Barbapapa blog and author of

The beard and the bottle

, Wednesday morning at the microphone of Europe 1. “Finally there is a positive movement! There is an investment from the State, a contribution from all French people to finance it. I am very happy for all future fathers in France who will be able to double their time with their child and support mothers in the month following the birth ", he commented. 

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A penalty against employers who do not respect paternity leave?

However, for this father of two children, born in France and Norway, the government must go further and make this leave compulsory: "It's important because we see that 80% of fathers on permanent contracts take this leave, but the statistic falls to 50% for fathers on fixed-term contracts. Making it compulsory could guarantee the taking of this paternity leave. There could even be a penalty to the employer if he did not grant it, "he explains. .

Wednesday morning, Benoît Serre, vice-president of the national association of directors of human resources, said he was against the mandatory nature.

"This was not desired by a number of employers' organizations, rather in favor of a strong incentive system for companies to let their employees freely take the paternity leave that they are granted", he declared. on Europe 1.

"An evolution, not a revolution"

Tristan Champion would also have liked this leave to be longer.

Last June, he published a column, with other fathers, and launched the hashtag # 1moisminimum.

At the beginning of September, a commission of experts had also submitted to the government a report recommending an extension of paternity leave to nine weeks.

"It's a societal development, but not a revolution that could have changed gender equality in France," he summarizes.

Currently, seven out of ten fathers take this optional leave, which dates from 2002.