Exceptional Situation in France: Can the Country Be Reformed?

France is suffering from rising unemployment and a permanent budget deficit. The planned labour market reforms have led to massive strikes and blockades that are rocking France. Does the country lack a culture of compromise? For Henrik Uterwedde, Deutsch-Französisches Institut, Ludwigsburg, there are no grounds for pessimism. Although he clearly sees that France needs to implement structural reforms and renew its economic and social model. But France is also changing. There is a great deal of entrepreneurial impetus in French society, and, despite all of its problems, the economy still has great potential. Nino Galetti, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Paris, and Tatjana Saranca, see France as “the most greatly underestimated economy in the world”. After the Brexit Paris will be capital city with the largest economic output in the EU. For Ronald Bachmann, RWI – Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Essen, a glance at the French labour market reveals a multi-faceted picture. Although partial labour market reforms have been implemented in the past in the form of expanding the use of limited-term contracts, these reforms did not successfully lower unemployment levels, especially among youths, but instead created the new problem of a strongly segmented labour market. According to Eckhard Wurzel, Universities of Göttingen and Constance, France makes heavy weather of economic reforms. This may partly be due to the reverberations of a tradition that primarily sees state intervention as a solution to economic problems. The country can, however, by all means be reformed, and the framework conditions for successful reforms could be significantly improved. Ronja Kempin and Aurora Bergmaier, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin, see the main reason for the failure of many political reform projects as the lack of a constructive social dialogue. Daniela Schwarzer, German Marshall Fund, highlights that the French President François Hollande’s record for implementing reforms is not as poor as is often claimed. Against a background of deep social crisis the surge in political divisions, polarisation and radicalisation in recent years does, however, give cause for concern. The threat of further political polarisation and radicalisation remains.