France, once again, is on the verge of chaos.
The subject of the discontent is the adoption of a law reforming the pension system in a minimal way: the legal retirement age in France has been set at 62 since 2010; the law raises it two years, to 64.
Neither members of the government nor economists on television dare to speak the truth: The French pension system is collapsing. The reform just adopted will not be enough to save it; just allow it to survive a bit longer.
The system has been bankrupt for years, but its bankruptcy is growing more costly.
The French pension system is not the only system collapsing. The country is facing a much larger crisis.
The French health insurance system, also based on mandatory contributions deducted from salaries, also is in terrible shape.
Food prices in 2022, meanwhile, increased 14.5%.
The center-left and center-right parties are dead. Neither the Rebellious France Party nor the National Rally Party would be able gather enough votes to constitute an alternative majority. The political situation is blocked.
France seems deadlocked, the possibilities of unblocking it nowhere in sight.
"A modest reform based on an implacable demographic observation has tipped France into an existential crisis in which everything is wavering... A much deeper malaise is rising to the surface. That of a country haunted by its decline". — Vincent Trémollet de Villers, Le Figaro, March 23, 2023.
"Have we hit rock bottom?" asked journalist Franz-Olivier Giesbert. "No, not yet."
France, once again, is on the verge of chaos. The French pension system is not the only system collapsing. The country is facing a much larger crisis. Pictured: Rioters in Nantes, France, on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP via Getty Images)
Paris, France. March 23, 8 p.m. A demonstration took place; as usual now, riots followed the demonstration and swept through the center of the city, then to other cities. Cars were burned, shop windows smashed, garbage dumpsters set on fire. A garbage collectors' strike began two weeks earlier; nearly ten thousand tons of garbage, still strewn on the sidewalks, almost completely block some streets. The proliferation of rats threatens disease. Oil refineries are shut down; gas stations are running dry. More demonstrations took place March 28 -- and more riots.
France, once again, is on the verge of chaos.
The subject of the discontent is the adoption of a law reforming the pension system in a minimal way: the legal retirement age in France has been set at 62 since 2010; the law raises it two years, to 64.
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