A report from a French governmental body has a pessimistic view of the country’s future. According to the country’s regional prefects, France is headed for a “social explosion” on the back of persistent increases in tax rates, high unemployment across the country and an unpopular president in the form of François Hollande. France is often pointed to as Europe’s next time bomb. It appears that some of the country’s officials agree.
The report, which was leaked by the French press, was authored by the country’s regional prefects. The prefects are appointed by the country’s President and responsible for policing and administration, warns that the country could be headed for major problems on the back of a crumbling economic system and an angry citizenry.
Eurozone violence burgeoning
So far the countries that have suffered from the major problems in Europe have been smaller and not all that important to the continents’ economic heath. Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece all required bailouts, but none were big enough to pull the political and economic Union apart, despite violence and market pressures. France would be a different story.
A cursory browse of the website of French news agency France 24 will clearly demonstrate the problems highlighted by the regional prefects’ report. François Hollande has an approval rating of 15%, the country has the highest tax bit in Europe, bar Belgium, and a weekend tax protest saw truck drivers block the country’s roads. There is already a good deal of unrest in France. The situation is not getting better.
According to the report from the prefects cameras placed around the country in order to enforce the country’s new green tax should be removed. The cameras operated as “symbols of fiscal oppression” according to the officials.
“A progressive roll-call of bankruptcies and forced redundancy plans is having a marked effect” according to the report. “As the bad news mounts up, there is an atmosphere of pain and despondency. There is a lack of hope for the future, and this is fertile territory for a social explosion in France.” France is no stranger to social strife. The country’s cities are regularly home to expressions of its society’s anger.
France’s European collapse
France is not just another peripheral nation despite the way it has been presented at a European level in recent years. Before the financial crisis took hold of the continent its politics were presented as a balance between French and German interests. Since the crisis scuppered France, those politics have been presented as an adult Germany teaching wayward children their lessons.
France is still a structurally important part of the Eurozone. If the “social explosion” promised by the country’s prefects comes to be, the entire continent may be headed for turmoil. French trouble has long been rumored by investors and analysts. Now parts of the country’s administration are warning against the same. Everybody is exposed to the Eurozone, and every investor should watch France closely.