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Latest update: 12/05/2011
- France - French politics - Nicolas Sarkozy - UMP - unemployment
Welfare excesses are 'cancer' of French society, minister says
France’s 36-year-old minister for European affairs, Laurent Wauquiez, has strongly criticised France’s welfare system, challenging fundamental ideas about French social policy and further exposing divisions within the ruling UMP party.
By Joseph BAMAT (text)
The excesses of the welfare system are the “cancer” of French society, a young government minister declared over the weekend, triggering an immediate backlash from France’s political establishment. The statements by the minister of European affairs, Laurent Wauquiez, not only ruffled feathers across the political spectrum but helped heighten divisions within President Nicolas Sarkozy’s divided UMP party.
On Sunday, Wauquiez, 36, blasted what he called the “excesses of state assistance”, using the term “assistanat”, which in French is a term roughly equivalent to "nanny state". Speaking to BFM television, the minister took specific aim at France’s RSA (revenu de Solidarité active) welfare programme, which guarantees a minimum income for all residents unable to make a living wage.
A moderate member of the UMP party, Wauquiez said he would present a proposal for a new programme within the next 10 days. While the details remain vague, Wauquiez said that under his plan state payouts would require RSA beneficiaries to perform five hours of community service every week.
Wauquiez’s unsolicited push to swap welfare for “workfare” by forcing welfare recipients to work for their cheques flies in the face of French political norms. From the opposition Socialist Party to France’s powerful unions, the left has unanimously criticised Wauquiez for his “cancer” indictment. But condemnation has also come down hard from within the young minister’s own political camp.
According to French economist Hélène Périvier, the RSA programme and its predecessors were not conceived to serve as compensation for work, but as a final "safety net” for the most vulnerable members of society. Wauquiez’s “workfare” proposal would completely challenge that concept.
“It’s a question of balance between two concepts: merit versus social solidarity,” Périvier says. “In France, it is clear that the idea of solidarity has prevailed in the past.”
Stoking UMP divisions
Sarkozy weighed in on the affair Wednesday, emphasising the “exceptional record of the RSA”, defending it as “a social shield and a tool to fight poverty” during a meeting with key ministers.
Earlier this week Martin Hirsch, who crafted the RSA and oversaw its implementation at Sarkozy’s request, feverishly attacked Wauquiez on French national television. “We’d make money on the backs of people who are going through difficult times, we would increase unemployment, and in the end, everybody would be on welfare,” Hirsch said, adding: “This idea doesn’t stand on its own for a second when we take a serious look at it.”
French Prime Minister François Fillon also defended the existing RSA programme, which has been considered one of the few achievements of the Sarkozy government in the area of social change.
However, UMP party leader François Copé supported Wauquiez’s statements on Monday, calling his upcoming proposal an “important contribution”.
The stark difference in tone between UMP comrades Copé and Fillon served as yet another reminder of the growing division with France’s ruling party. In March, Copé and Fillon had bitter public disagreements over a UMP-sponsored debate on secularism and the role of Islam in France.
With less than 11 months before the next presidential elections, an internal UMP row over the future of France’s welfare system would bode poorly for Sarkozy, who is expected to run for re-election.
Ironically, while he champions the RSA today, Sarkozy’s own 2007 campaign manifesto reads much like the Wauquiez plan. “I will see that [welfare] beneficiaries have an activity of general interest, in order to motivate each person to find a job rather than live off government assistance,” Sarkozy told voters in the run-up to the last election.
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Comments (7)
Minister. Wauquiez please come to America!
Minister. Wauquiez, please come to America, we need you ASAP!
Wow, 5 hours of Community Service a week?
Well, it is a start. Could I suggest that for all the layabouts sucking the life out of your country you first drug test all recipients and then get them to fill a real job for 5 hours a day for starters. I know this might be shocking to some but theft under the guise of welfare support for those too lazy to work is not a good foundation for anything but a kleptocracy.
Welfare excesses are 'cancer' of French society, minister says
Laurent Wauquiezmust have been talking to the useless bunch of politicians masquerading as a government here in the UK. he really does need to get a reality check. What is he trying to do? Playing one part of society off against another? I have good friends in France who ever so tentatively suggested politely that the UK was not a very pleasant place to live. I more than agreed with them, the UK is almost not civilised when it comes to dealing with the less privileged in society. Don't let this gentlemen Laurent Wauquiezmust's ideas take root, he neds further education in the real world.
A hand
I have always believed in a hand up instead of a hand out. I also think by accepting charity the government should mandate birth control while you are receiving it.
France's minister of Eureopeon Affairs
I bet Laurent Wauquiez's is not poverty stricken, therefore, it is easy for him to critize welfare programs in France. These programs in France are for the poor in France, who for what ever reason have not succeeded in the social-capitalistic society. What should we do for the poor? Removing the safety need does not solve the problems of the poor!
Social junkies
There are people who intend to stay on welfare for their whole life and spend their days texting each other and hanging around as though they were in an open zoo. They should be make clean the rubbish off the streets and filth in the Metro so they contribute to the country they live off. The state cannot keep the growing number of non skilled zombies forever.
Welfare reform/ workfare
As one of the frequently unemployed I would have no objection to limited workfare in principle, unemployment is boring. However, it should be predominantly limited to the warmer months of the year, be restricted to external public areas and be within 0.5 - 1km of the person's home. This would effectively turn the unemployed into caretakers for their local community spaces. In the case of areas of high unemployment which usually suffer from high levels of graffiti & rubbish this should result in an overall improvement in the communal environment and, thus, of the local population's morale.
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