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What’s coming up? The week ahead in France
€100-€200 cheque on way to thousands of homes using heating oil, a cross-sector strike, a literary prize award, a road speed change and more
Cheque for households using heating oil
Thousands of households which use heating oil will receive a cheque worth €100-€200 on November 8, depending on their income.
Read more: Fuel oil aid for homes in France: Who is eligible for the €100-200?
This will apply to people who received the government’s chèque énergie in 2022 and who used it to buy heating oil.
They will be sent the new cheque automatically.
At the end of this year, 12 million households will also benefit from an exceptional chèque énergie.
You can find out more about these government aids here.
Cross-sector strike across France
Thursday (November 10) is expected to mark a day of cross-sector industry action across France, the fourth such occasion since the September rentrée.
Read also: Most strikes in France are on a Tuesday or a Thursday. Here’s why
This strike is being led largely by the CGT union, which is demanding pay rises for all workers, including an increase to France’s minimum wage to €2,000 brut (before charges) from the current €1,645.48.
In terms of the disruption expected as a result of this strike, SNCF has not yet published a revised timetable, and is not obliged to do so before tomorrow.
When the strike was first announced, the phrase “zero metro, zero RER” was used to suggest that Paris public transports could be severely affected by the industry action, so people travelling around the capital may be seriously impacted.
Teaching unions have also issued a strike notice. Nursery and primary school staff must declare their intention to strike at least 48 hours before, so the parents of younger children should know if their child’s class will be affected from tomorrow.
Speed limit back to 90km/h on some Yonne roads
The speed limit has risen from 80km/h to 90km/h on 10% of Yonne (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) roads today (November 7).
Read more: Speed limits switch back to 90km/h on more French roads
This is in spite of a recommendation to the contrary from the Commission départementale de la sécurité routière.
The change affects the 81, 606, 660, 905, 965 and 1060 departmental roads, and will cover around 500km.
Drivers will be notified of the different speed limit by signs which have already been put in place.
Armistice Day
Friday (November 11) is le Jour de l’Armistice (Remembrance Day), which is a public holiday in France.
On the day, President Emmanuel Macron, armed forces veterans and other figures from French public life will pay tribute to the soldiers who have been killed or injured in past conflicts, and a minute’s silence will be held at 11:00.
Macron at COP27
President Emmanuel Macron is at the COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt today, and is expected to meet separately with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak while at the event.
Mr Sunak has stressed the “importance for both nations to make the Channel route completely unviable for people traffickers,” Downing Street has said.
Reports from the Mail on Sunday and The Times suggest that a Franco-British deal on cross-Channel cooperation is set to be signed in the coming weeks, and that Mr Sunak has called for a minimum number of officers patrolling French beaches.
On the subject of climate change, Mr Macron has said: “What we need to fight for is that the richest countries are [at the summit]. We in the EU play our part, but we are the only ones doing so.”
He added that “pressure” needed to be applied to rich non-European countries to encourage action on their part.
On Tuesday, the French president is expected to meet with the 50 French sites which produce the most greenhouse gas emissions, in order to discuss ways in which to accelerate their decarbonisation process.
Prix Médicis announced
The winner of the French literary award, the Prix Médicis, will be announced tomorrow (November 8).
This prize was founded in 1958 by Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giradoux, for fiction authors whose “fame does not yet match [their] talent”.
Since 1970 the Prix Médicis étranger has been awarded to books published in translation, and since 1985 the Prix Médicis essai has been awarded for non-fiction books.
World Forum for Democracy
From today until Wednesday (November 9), researchers, civil servants and academics from around the world will meet at the tenth World Forum for Democracy (Forum mondial de la démocratie in French) in Strasbourg.
Participants will study the principal factors contributing to the decline of democracy and consider how they may be remedied.
In this way it hopes to make democracy more inclusive and participatory, so as to strengthen the public service of national institutions.
Paris Photo
This year’s Paris Photo art fair will run from Thursday to Sunday (November 10-13) at the Grand Palais.
The event involves a public programme of exhibitions, prizes and talks.
You can find out more on the Paris Photo website.
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