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What changes in France in June 2022?

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
What changes in France in June 2022?
A woman holds the rainbow flag, during a Pride month (the month of June) celebration in 2013 in France. (Photo by MARTIN BUREAU / AFP)

With the final tax deadlines and France's parliamentary elections on the horizon, June will also bring summer sales, a (sort of) public holiday and the Fête de la musique.

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Public holidays

June has one public holiday - Pentecost Monday (or Whit Monday in English), which takes place on June 6th. However, not everyone has the day off. Find out more HERE.

Parliamentary elections

France has more elections coming up. French voters will vote on June 12th and again on June 19th to elect the 577 députés (similar to MPs in the UK system) who will represent them at the National Assembly. The official campaigns for the candidates started on May 30th.

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READ MORE: French parliamentary elections – when do they happen and why are they important?

The new députés will take office on June 28th, 2022, forming a new government based on who wins a majority in the National Assembly. 

Tax deadlines

If you live in départements 55 to 96 or one of the French overseas territories, you have until June 8th, to file your tax declaration. Other départements' deadlines were in May. 

The start of Pride month

The month of June also marks Pride Month for members of the LGBTQI+ community. Pride parades are set to happen across France. Paris' Pride parade is the largest, attracting thousands of participants and spectators. This year the procession will take place on June 25th, starting at 2pm. The parade normally goes about 4 hours and finishes at Place de la République, where speeches and further celebration typically takes place. The starting point has not been announced yet. 

For other cities, pride parade will take place on June 4th (Clermont-Ferrand, La Rochelle, Lille, Nancy, Périgueux, Rennes, Reims, Saint-Denis, Troyes); June 11th (Arras, Carcassonne, Compiègne, Le Havre, Lyon, Mende, Nantes); June 12th (Bordeaux); June 18th (Ancenis, Arles, Brest, Caen, Gap, Guéret, Laval, Lorient, Metz, Rouen, Saint-Quentin, Strasbourg, Tours) and June 25th (Biarritz, Bourges, Montpellier, Paris). 

Fête de la musique

Every year, France rings in the summer with the Fête de la Musique, in which towns and cities across France see a day of concerts, music events and street musicians. 

This takes place every year on June 21st, which this year is a Thursday. 

The summer sales

For the majority of the country, the summer sales (soldes d'été) will start on Wednesday, June 22nd and will run until Tuesday, July 19th.

There are some exceptions like the French overseas territories and Alpes-Maritimes. For a comprehensive list with the exact dates per département, click here.

The end of the €38 limit for les tickets resto

This change has been postponed several times in an attempt to prop up the restaurant industry during the pandemic, but the €38 ceiling for meal vouchers (tickets resto) will come to an end. Workers whose place of employment does not offer a canteen or cooking space typically benefit from these vouchers 

On June 30th, the maximum limit will return to the previous cap of €19.

The end of the French Open

There are only a few days left of the Roland-Garros tournament, with the ladies singles final on June 4th and the men's singles final on Sunday, June 5th.

The Champs-Elysées film festival

The 11th edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival will take place from June 21st to 28th. This festival will screen a wide selection of French and American independent films in different movie theatres across the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

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The end of the freeze on gas price hikes

Gas prices applied by Engie are technically set to increase by 4.4 percent from June 1st - although in reality households will remain protected by the government's 'tariff's shield' which was put in place to protect households from price hikes.

This was extended until the end of June, and Macron's government has signaled their intention to extend it until the end of the year, although this will not be formally put into place after the parliamentary elections. 

A simplified right to a bank account

The right to have a bank account should become a bit less painstaking this month, an important change for the many foreigners - especially Americans - who struggle to open a French bank account.

A person who asks to open a bank account and does not receive a reply within 15 days of his or her request will be able to turn to the Banque de France, who will automatically designate an institution close to the applicant's home. This will come into force on June 13th.

"This procedure is open to any person residing in France or in a member state of the European Union, to any French person residing abroad and also to applicants who are banned from banking," says the French public administration.

Updated conditions for furlough payments

Employees in sectors including hospitality, leisure, sports and culture can continue to benefit from the current rate of chomage partiel until September. The scheme, introduced at the beginning of the first lockdown, allows business to furlough employees during closure. It has since stopped for most businesses, but certain sectors who were badly affected by the pandemic can still apply it. 

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For the other sectors, however, employees will be able to benefit from an allowance of 84 percent of their net pay until July 1st. It will then start to decrease to 72 percent of net income from that date. The change is most important for companies, as outside the protected sectors, the remaining amount to be paid by the employer will be 25 percent as of June 1st.

Loan insurance

The "Lemoine law" is set to come into force partially (it will be applied to new contracts) from June 1st, 2022. This will finally allow for the possibility of cancelling your loan insurance at any time to take advantage of a cheaper offer and/or one with better guarantees. In September, it will apply to currently existing contracts.

On top of this, the new law will get rid of the medical questionnaire for loans of less than €200,000 and will make it easier to access to real estate loans for people who have suffered from cancer or hepatitis C, as they will now be able to obtain a loan under the same conditions as all other borrowers within five years of their recovery.

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