Lunchtime News Thursday 4th June 2020

Weather warning - Météo France has issued a Orange weather warning with storms forecast in the Alpes Maritimes and the Var until 3pm this afternoon.

In addition to thunderstorms and rain, Météo France warns of strong gusts of wind and hail. Five departments of the Southeast are placed on orange alert: the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the Alpes-Maritimes, the Bouches- du-Rhône, Var and Vaucluse.

The bad weather has led to long delays on the region’s roads and several accidents. Motorists have been advised to take extra care.

In Saint-Raphaël in the Var, the beaches have been closed for 24 hours due to the bad weather.

64 mm of rain has fallen in less than nine hours in Cuers, in the Var.

In Mougins the chemin du Ferrandou is currently closed between the Font de Currault bridge and the Vallauris road. Rescue services are mobilized in the area. Cannes is reportedly experiencing the worst of the bad weather in the Alpes Maritimes.

Iggy Pop concert postponed - Due to the health crisis, it’s been announced that the Iggy Pop concert planned at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on September 10th has been postponed until next year.

The concert has been moved to April 1st next year. The tickets purchased remain valid on the new date. If however it is cancelled at a later date the Grimaldi Forum ticket office will reimburse tickets through email requests at ticket@grimaldiforum.com

SNCF summer offer - France’s Secretary of State for Transport has announced that the SNCF train network in France will soon be selling 3 million tickets for less than 49 euros to boost attendance on its trains during the summer season.

The tickets will soon be on sale and will concern mainly trains that for long distance travel such as TGV and Intercities.

SNCF will put back on track "100% of its daily trains from June 15th" and "100% for TGV’s on June 24th,". The SNCF currently, operates an average of 2 TGVs out of 3, nearly 1 Ouigo out of 2 and 1 Intercity out of 2.

Employment - French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe are to meet today at 3pm with unions and employers to look for solutions to preserve employment which has been hard hit by the recession linked to the health crisis.

Partial unemployment and unemployment insurance reforms are to be discussed which the unions are for the unemployment reforms due in September be abandoned.

The question will be working on what can be done to preserve jobs and support for the most vulnerable, especially young people entering the job market.

More than eight million people are partially unemployed, and more than six million job seekers were registered by Pôle emploi in April. 

Tax returns - With one week left to go to file your tax return in France ten million taxpayers have still not done so.

Twelve million taxpayers have benefited from automatic registration, which was introduced for the first time this year.

Due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the French government has extended the deadlines for submitting 2019 tax returns. The inhabitants of departments from 1 to 19 have until midnight Thursday June 4th to do so online, those from departments 20 to 54 until June 8th and those from departments 55 to 976 until June 11th. For the paper declaration, the limit is fixed at June 12th.

Survey - A recent survey has shown that while 73% of French people polled would like to see a change in policy from the French government, 2 out of 3 French people want Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to stay in Matignon.

The survey carried out by Odoxa showed that a large majority do not want a change of Prime Minister. 7 out of 10 French people say they do not believe in a change in the president's policy or personality and 6 out of 10 believe that the government will increase the salary of caregivers and 46% think the President will nonetheless lead more social and more ecological policies.