In 2013, 285,000 people left France — twice as many as the previous year. They include many Jews who discern that the social climate is unhealthy; entrepreneurs who consider the situation hopeless, and young graduates who think they have no future in France.
The largest number of European jihadists in Syria — more than 380, according to police documents — come from France. Most of them are recent converts to Islam. Some will die, some will return home.
In November of 2013, Standard & Poor’s cut France’s sovereign debt rating from AA+ to AA. A few days later, Moody’s also also stripped France of its AAA, cutting it to AA1. And the next day, the OECD weighed in, saying that France was falling behind southern European countries.
At the same time, the European Commission asked France to avoid new tax hikes, and repeated that France had to bring its public deficit down to the EU threshold of 3% of GDP before January 1, 2015.
Soon, therefore, the French government will have no choice, and will have to do what needs to be done — cut taxes and spending; reform the job market and the welfare system, and give entrepreneurs breathing space — even if it means strikes and scenes of insurrection — or face the consequences, which could be even worse than strikes and insurrection.