Emmanuel Macron’s statements: a new six-month “maternity leave” will replace parental leave

Will this be enough to make the French want to have children again? After the INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Demographic Research) reported a child disaster on Tuesday, January 16, this announcement made by Emmanuel Macron during a press conference on Tuesday, January 16 is timely: create a new “birth leave” child”, higher paid. to replace current parental leave.

While the birth rate is collapsing, falling 7% in 2023 compared to 2022, the Head of State insists that he wants to allow “both parents to stay with the child for six months if they wish,” without specifying the amount of compensation. He also announced the launch of a “grand plan” to combat the “scourge of infertility” with the goal of our “demographic rearmament,” in his words.

More than three years have passed since parental leave reform came to the attention of the executive branch, turning into a real sea serpent. Note that parental leave currently allows parents to suspend their professional activities until the child reaches 3 years of age, those famous “first 1000 days,” which experts call a key period for the good development of a child.

Already during Macron’s first five-year term, the government in 2021, under the auspices of Adrien Taquet, then Secretary of State for the Family, launched a mission “to better reconcile personal and professional life.” The goal then was to take the model of Scandinavian countries such as Sweden or Norway, where both parents are encouraged to stop working during the child’s first year of life.

Very poorly paid vacation

It must be said that in France, parental leave, created in 1977 and already reformed several times, was taken by a minimal proportion of parents, and especially fathers. Following another reform in 2014, the number of parents using it even fell from 500,000 to 246,000 in 2020, according to data released by the government in 2021.

Less than 1% of fathers have accepted it, according to a 2021 study by the French Observatory of Economic Conditions. And for good reason. The assistance paid by the Family Allowance Fund (CAF) in the amount of 429 euros per month prevents many couples from taking advantage of it for financial reasons.

Following her appointment in the summer of 2023, former Secretary of State for Family Affairs Aurore Berger raised the topic again during an interview with Ouest-France, announcing the introduction of a “shorter” “parental leave” in 2025. but it’s better compensated.” She then mentioned “family leave” allowing the “middle class to have access to it.” However, she then suggested that this new leave could “co-exist” with the current parental leave, which appears to no longer be on the agenda.

To respond to the rise in infertility, Emmanuel Macron also announced on Tuesday that “a major plan will be launched to combat this scourge to ensure precisely this demographic rearmament.” This national plan to combat infertility was expected and mandated by the 2021 Bioethics Act. In addition to this law, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Family Affairs at the time commissioned two specialists to “take stock” of the causes of infertility and propose measures. Today in France, one in four couples who want children cannot conceive after 12 months of trying, a period that meets the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of infertility.