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Paris, "the new sick man of Europe"

2025-09-04 19:43:59Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA ERIC JOZSEF
Paris, "the new sick man of Europe"
Macron

President Macron has failed to address the identity crisis of his fellow citizens. The government crisis, the rising debt and the failure of the EU to revitalize itself are three symptoms of the Paris disease.

Eric Jozsef – La Stampa

It's not a seasonal flu. The disease affecting France, which prompted the Wall Street Journal to label Paris "Europe's new sick man," is not limited to the ongoing political crisis and the rising public debt that caused it.

For two days, awaiting his appearance before the National Assembly on September 8 for a vote of confidence, Prime Minister François Bayrou has been hosting political parties at the Hôtel Matignon to convince them to save his government, but the somber procession resembles a final farewell to a man condemned to death.

The Socialists have described their decision to vote no confidence in him as “irreversible.” The far right and far left will also vote against him. So, with his resignation looming, it will be up to Emmanuel Macron himself to prop up the country with an alternative government or a vote.

Two years before the end of his term, he appears to be a President of the Republic with a shrunken domestic profile, with his popularity rating having fallen to 20%.

It seems like an eternity since May 2017, when the newly elected Macron celebrated his entrance into the Elysee Palace by marching triumphantly in front of the Louvre Pyramid to the pro-European sounds of the “Ode to Joy.”

That day, the 39-year-old head of state promised the country a "Revolution," which, to be realized, would require the resolution of three knots, the same knots that, unresolved, perfectly explain the poor socioeconomic state of France today: changing political practice, reforming the country, and strengthening Europe.

The first issue was the transformation of French politics and society, overcoming the habit of confrontation rather than dialogue, to bridge divisions and find compromise.

Macron named his party En Marche precisely to set aside the “old world” and advance “en même temps” (at the same time) the best proposals of the left and the right.

However, accused from the beginning of favoring a supply-side policy to boost growth, he quickly lost the support of a segment of the progressive electorate, outraged by corporate tax cuts, the elimination of the estate tax, and the flat 30% tax on capital gains.

In doing so, he failed to implement the country's long-awaited economic reforms through dialogue with social partners, the second key issue. For more than 50 years, France has accumulated a public deficit and has almost never presented a positive budget bill.

The country has a generous social security system and a strong administration, to which the French are so attached that any reform proposal is difficult, especially if it is perceived as being unevenly distributed across social classes, as in 2023, when the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 caused a mass mobilization.

At the same time, Macron's tax breaks for businesses have reduced state revenues, increasing debt.

This debt, due to social spending and tax cuts, exploded first with the yellow vest crisis (which was eased in December 2018 with 10 billion euros put on the table), then with the measures required after the Covid pandemic (17 points of GDP) and most recently with the war in Ukraine, which required further spending to protect businesses and consumers from rising gas and oil prices.

Thus, France now finds itself with a debt of over 3.34 trillion euros (114% of GDP), 1.3 trillion euros more than in 2017.

"For 20 years, French debt has increased by 12 million euros every hour," Prime Minister Bayrou noted a few days ago, proposing 44 billion euros in savings by 2026.

Almost all political forces now recognize the urgency of addressing the debt issue, but they disagree on the scale of effort needed and the areas to target.

Socialists, in particular, fear that excessive austerity measures will stifle growth and are demanding that wealthier taxpayers and businesses pay more.

However, an easy deal in Parliament is not on the horizon and this political instability is fueling investor mistrust, increasingly skeptical of the French authorities' ability to return the public deficit to a sustainable path.

The third issue is Europe. In 2017, while walking through the courtyard of the Louvre, the newly elected Macron stressed the need for France to work towards completing the European project and asserting the sovereignty of the community. In recent years, few EU political leaders have devoted as much effort to integration as the French president.

But, as recent reports by Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi highlighted, the finish line is still far away, and Paris's poor state is also a symptom of the shortcomings of the current European Union: in particular, the lack of massive joint investment and the lack of tax harmonisation.

In fact, member states compete to attract the wealthiest taxpayers and businesses, resulting in a significant reduction in the overall tax revenues of member states.

From Portugal, which has been trying to lure European retirees with tax breaks for 15 years, to the Netherlands and Ireland, which are winking at multinational companies with preferential taxes.

From Italy, which, as Bayrou noted, introduced a flat tax of 200,000 euros to lure millionaires, to Macron himself, who in 2017 abolished the tax on large assets, partly in the hope of channeling the financial world that was leaving London after Brexit to Paris and convincing French investors to stay.

Supporter of a sovereign Europe, which does not yet exist, and President of the French Republic, which has lost most of its sovereignty, Macron, like others before him, has failed to address the identity crisis of his fellow citizens, destabilized by the sight of an ever-smaller France in an increasingly threatening world.

He failed to do so, even though, in front of the Louvre and to the backdrop of the European Anthem, he had identified three essential issues. The French disease is not a seasonal flu, and small financial cures or political alchemy will not suffice.


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