France is swimming in beer. The brewers say they will have to pour 10 million litres down the drain because bars, cafés and restaurants have been closed during lockdown. One reason for the glut is that drinkers’ standards have gone up recently.
First it was wine, then cheese, now there’s too much beer. The brewers’ organisation, Brasseurs de France, has announced that its members have litres of product going bad in the barrel. They are already receiving emergency loans but now they want an EU grant to help destroy unwanted stocks, a measure winemakers are also lobbying for.
Apparently, trendy craft beers are more difficult to keep than the industrialised bière blonde that used to be pretty much all you could find in France. That’s becausethey taste of something other than chemicals. They’re heavy on hops so they lose their flavour within about three months.
The traditional game of parliamentary ping-pong is back, with the government’s bill to handle the end of lockdown sent back to the lower house of parliament by the right-wing controlled Senate.
The upper house wants the health state of emergency to end on 10 July, instead of the 24 July, which the Macronists seem to be able to live with.
The senators have also amended the bill to protect bosses, mayors and local councillors from prosecution due to the implementation of deconfinement.
Always on the lookout for a way to eat away at laws that protect workers’ rights, the bosses’ union, Medef, has written to Labour Minister Muriel Pénicaud demanding immunity from prosecution if their employees fall ill.
There have been many complaints of inadequate protection – failure to enforce social distancing, not enough masks, insufficient hand gel – by people who have had to continue working.
The Medef, and the small business body CPME, argue that the fear of prosecution, even if it is unsuccessful in the end, will be unbearable and will hamper economic recovery.
“How can you prove that an employee caught the virus at work and not when he went to the butcher’s to buy meat?” asks Alain Grizet, from shopkeeper’s group U2P. “Everybody should be made safe: the consumer, the worker, the boss.”
And, with a wave of a magic wand, the class struggle is abolished!
The law does in fact protect employers, as long as they have taken the precautions deemed necessary, employment law expert Pascal Lokiec told Le Monde.
Victims of domestic violence will not be placed in isolation with their abusive partners in the event of infection in the household, thanks to a Socialist amendment that was passed unanimously.
Good news from the north! All of the Hauts-de-France region, which used to be rather summarily known as Le Nord, has gone from red (high infection) to orange, which is better although not the green all-clear we all aspire to.
The region includes the Oise, north-east of Paris, which was one of the worst-hit areas early in the epidemic, partly due to a high rate of infection on a military base there.
The Désinfox page on the government’s website, which linked to articles exposing fake news about the virus, has been scrapped, after media outlets, including those whose publications were deemed linkable by the authorities, pointed out that the state is not the best arbiter on this question.
One journalist’s union had taken legal action to force closure.
Macron will consult selected luvvies today to prepare a rescue plan for the arts.
He will announce the outcome of his deliberations this afternoon.
Left-wing MP Alexis Corbière has laid into Culture Minister Franck Riester (I’ve always wondered whether he got the part on the strength of his showbizzy name) for refusing to propose come up with a plan until his boss had spoken.
Corbière told RFI that he wants the arts to receive as much as Air France, ie seven billion euros, pointing out that the sector employs 1.5 million people, “not just artists but also technicians, dressers …” and contributes seven times more to GDP than the car industry.
France’s Covid-19 death toll now officially stands at 25,531, 330 in the last 24 hours. 24,775 people are in hospital, down 773 yesterday, with 3,430 in intensive care, down 266. 52,736 patients have been discharged from hospital, 1,365 of them yesterday.
