The French presidential elections and the death of social dialogue

What role do trade unions have to play in the 2017 French presidential election? As Nick Parsons writes, when François Hollande won the last presidential election in 2012, he promised to establish a ‘social dialogue’ under which actors such as trade unions would be consulted over government policy.

But the failure of this strategy, underlined by the extensive protests held over a new labour law in 2016, may leave trade unions resigned to oppositional mobilisation or increasing marginalisation from French political life, regardless of which candidate wins the upcoming election.

• Primary Source

ESO: Key source: France Presidential Election 2017 http://www.europeansources.info/record/french-presidential-election-2017/

ESO: Background information: Revision of the French Labour Code: limited reforms, considerable tensions http://www.europeansources.info/record/revision-of-the-french-labour-code-limited-reforms-considerable-tensions/

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