"The desire of privilege and the taste of equality are the dominant and contradictory passions of the French at all times."
- Charles de Gaulle
France is at a crossroads. Baguettes, croissants, the Eiffel Tower, a “welfare system to die for,” vin et fromage à l'infini – cliches are built on degrees of truth, but you can't live on them forever. There is no substitute for reality, and the French need a taste of it. Intoxicated by years of domestic and foreign policy success, Kierkegaard’s angst now grips the French elite; France,under their tutelage, is not faring well. And what of the man in the Élysée Palace? The French president is displaying his insecurity for all to see. Emmanuel Macron is desperate to regain his image and what has been lost or taken from France under his watch: influence, respect, and an inability to extricate themselves from the penumbra of US hegemony. Here is a recent headline from Breitbart describing the president's behavior: “Italy Blasts ‘Desperate’ Macron for ‘Dangerous’ Rhetoric on Russian-Ukraine War.” The same article goes on to say how Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the populist League party, wrote on social media: “Sending Italian soldiers to fight outside the EU borders? Follow the obsessions of some dangerous and desperate European leader like Macron? No thanks, never in the name of the League.”Hard Times for France
The French Republic is in a somewhat difficult position, and not simply because of the president. France is a nation with a formidable nuclear arsenal, yet it has lost the capacity to influence its geopolitical landscape. Over the last few decades, Paris' former greatness has slipped from its grasp in the world of geopolitical affairs. It has, within the European Union, ceded to Germany its leading position – economically and politically. In fact, it has lost much of the authority needed to effect its internal development.
It seems the French government has the economy on a war footing in the name of supporting Ukraine. Thus, tax revenue will now be siphoned off to support Ukraine's military and domestic needs rather than the French economy. Budget deficits will continue to grow, and the GDP will remain stagnant, causing the nation’s sovereign debt to increase while the standard of living for its people declines. In other words, the protracted lack of any political will to solve the many problems of the Fifth Republic turning into a crisis. The French appear to be ensconced in a malaise – a sort of paralysis has crept into the body politic.
The rather prideful insecurity of the French president is symptomatic of the crisis in which France now finds itself. The political will to effect change seems equivocal, if not altogether absent. The French Republic doesn't seem able to muster the will to find a way out of its systemic crisis. It knows it needs to change, but it seems to want to do it without “changing” anything.
Since the latter part of the 20th century, the chief obstacles undermining France’s era of relevant decision-making were the institutions of the collective West – NATO, EU, and the euro currency – that, ironically, France worked tirelessly to create. Slowly but surely, these institutions limited the scope of independent decision-making by the French political elite. At the same time, these restrictions were not simply imposed from outside; they were the product of the solutions that Paris itself found to maintain its influence in world politics and economics.
One could argue that under President Macron’s leadership, the world witnessed the French being humiliated by their overseas partners. In September 2021, the Australian government rejected a prospective order worth billions of euros for a series of submarines to be produced by Paris. Instead, boat production was redirected by Australia in favor of a new alliance with the US and Britain (AUKUS). The French were effectively cut out of the deal. As a result of its reduced economic status in Europe and its political dependency on the US, France was left impotent to respond.
The High Cost of Social Spending
The era of comparative calm and dynamism of the 1950s provided the material basis for the colossal system of social guarantees that most outside observers associate (and, in some cases, covet) with modern France. But a broader historical view puts that into perspective.
The stability and prosperity of the majority of the population are attributes of a relatively short period of French history – no more than 40 years of good times (1960s-1990s), during which the economic, political, and social system of the Fifth Republic was created and flourished. It has been said that time heals, but it can also wound. Irreversible processes in the economy began with the global crisis of the late 2000s and gradually led to problems common in the West: erosion of the middle class, a declining population and, thus, the shrinking capacity of the state to maintain a system of social obligations. To meet these obligations, France saw only one viable option – a political one, unfortunately – debt financing.
In the mid-2010s, France became the European champion in terms of the total debt of the economy, reaching 280% of GDP, and the public debt is now 110% of GDP. The main reason for these startling statistics is France's addiction to huge social spending, which leads to chronic budget deficits with no respite in sight.
A Structural Issue
One of the nation’s most intractable problems is that it has a smaller proportion of its adult population in productive work than other developed nations. Early retirement, high youth unemployment, and interminable studies mean that France has barely 68.8% of its 16 to 65 population at work – compared to almost 75% in Britain and a little over 77% in Germany.
The inability to solve these social and economic problems, combined with the destruction of the traditional structure of society, has led to a crisis within France’s internal political system. The traditional parties of the political Left (Socialists and Communists) and political Right (Republicans and “far Right”) are now perilously close to “organizational disorganization.”
The problems that plague the French Republic are structural, which means they are thoroughly integrated into its social, economic, and political system. No additional amount of debt or procrastination will suffice to extricate France from its current morass. Difficult economic and therefore political steps must be taken if France is to overcome its political malaise. This is imperative if it hopes to recapture a sense of the importance it once felt, and wishes to feel again, in the orbit of world affairs.
But to do this, the French people will need to take a hard look at themselves. They will need to decide what it means to be French in a France requiring so many decisions – decisions that will inevitably alter the social, economic, and political landscape of that proud country. Electing candidates of the ilk of Emmanuel Macron or Jean-Luc Mélenchon will only perpetuate an already erosive situation, leading to further deterioration in the ability to advance the country’s best interest.
But this is not new for France. Consider the fact that from 1789 to 1958 there have been 17 separate governments in France. And these have included absolute monarchy, restored monarchy, constitutional monarchy, empire, authoritative (Vichy), and republic. The Fifth Republic is just the most recent.
The question is: Can the French people hold onto their joie de vivre and still keep France, France? Bonne Chance.
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F. Andrew Wolf, Jr. is director of The Fulcrum Institute, an organization of scholars dedicated to the classical liberal tradition. He has also been published stateside in American Spectator, The Thinking Conservative, and American Thinker, and abroad in International Policy Digest, Times of Israel, and The Daily Philosophy, among others.
