S.O.S. France - By Eric S. Margolis

Nga: Eric S. Margolis

Mon Dieu! La France has run out of politicians. The Republic of this great democracy has hundreds of professional politicians. In fact, 577 in its National Assembly. Yet it can’t seem to find a prime minister who can hold this difficult job.

So, citizens, aux armes. Form your battalions. Tyranny threatens the Republic.

The problem is simple, yet complex. The French welfare state costs too much to run. French voters are spoiled and coddled. The machinery of state works very well but too many citizens are enjoying the good life while too few are paying the bills through taxes. All western democracies suffer from similar problems, but few suffer as much or as loudly.

The French hate taxes. The French Revolution of 1789 was primarily ignited by increases in taxation caused by the need to cover the large costs of financing the American Revolution. French governments never seem to have balanced the books since then.

France’s excellent educational system - which in comparison makes the US equivalent look third world - is filled with leftist pedagogues. The French Socialist and Communist Parties totally infiltrated the educational system and institutionalised its leftist, anti-capitalist, statist thinking. The essence of this ideology is a nanny state, socialist economics, powerful labor unions, rich state subsidies and promoting government run industries. While the thrifty Germans were pinching their pfennigs, France was spending like a drunken sailor. Too many powerful political elements ensured that special interests would always benefit from the government gravy train.

France built an excellent medical, transportation and educational system but had to short change its military. A rueful general once told me France’s total military budget was smaller than the US Navy’s annual spending. Even so, France has sought to remain a world-class strategic power on a skimpy budget.

Ever since the 19th Century, France has been locked in political and social warfare between the Left and Right. Each Socialist or other leftist government has made matters worse. Even moderate governments have been unable to resist popular demands for ever more welfare spending.

The chief culprit has been France’s crazy retirement laws that allow the French to retire at only 62 years old. I’ve seen how the French countryside is filled by bored, retired men who had to quit their jobs far too early. This featherbedding hurts the national economy, undermines productivity and saps national morale.

Most recently, centrist President Emmanuel Macron proposed a sensible new law increasing the retirement age from 62 to 64.

A furore erupted across France. I was having dinner in the northwestern fortress city of Metz when mobs of rampaging youth attacked our restaurant, parked cars and shops. These were 20-something youngsters who wouldn’t be eligible for pensions for another 40 years. But French love riots and demos even more than vin rouge and football.

Macron had to back down over this pension reform. Three of his choices for prime minister resigned or were ousted because of their inability to resolve France’s endemic financial crises. Today the budget deficit has hit 114% of gross domestic product, putting France in financial disrepute with bad boys Italy and Greece.

What to do? Cut runaway spendings or raise taxes? No one knows how to do this. Meanwhile, Trump is demanding higher military spending. Most Europeans are against bigger armies and higher taxes.

Macron’s latest nominee for premier, Sebastien Lecornu (meaning “horned one” - a big insult in Italy) previously resigned but now says he will stay on. To do what? Sell the Eifel Tower to Trump? But if Lecornu does not find an answer, the powerful right-wing opposition led by Marine LePen is poised to take power. That will bring a new mess and crisis.  How can “The Great Nation” be in such a cornichon? As in the past, France would do well to allow Swiss Bankers take over and run finances.

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2025