It is not the safety of Eastern European workers on construction sites that concerns the presidents of local authorities when they impose the use of the French language on companies bidding for their calls for tenders.
It is the avatar of a shameful protectionism that is winning over the right, thus appearing to give in to this anti-European populism, on which the sovereignist far-right, for its part, thrives without any complex.
That elected officials in France, a founding country, would resort to such methods should prompt us to a serious collective introspection.
Of course, it is the responsibility of our political leaders to protect local employment when it is threatened by social dumping.
But if there is dumping on the sites, it is because this directive is too often bypassed and its application insufficiently controlled.
This social dumping is a reality not because of the directive on posted work, but despite this directive—which also allows 180,000 French people to be posted abroad without being required to speak German, Slovenian, or Latvian…
However, to pretend that nothing is being done is to fuel populism cheaply: in the process of generalization, an electronic professional identity card will soon be imposed on all construction sites, allowing verification that the company is in compliance and its employees declared.
Above all, instead of participating in the European demolition game, our political leaders should promote a European solution to the excesses of posted work: this is the goal of revising the directive in order to ban social dumping by leveling remuneration, including bonuses.
Improving Europe rather than rejecting it is what should always separate the right from the far-right.
by Garibaldino
