France’s chronic malaise is marked by periodic explosions of protest. The two most recent episodes – the rioting and arson in French cities last autumn and the successful student campaign earlier this year against a new law governing young labor-market entrants – seem to have little in common. But their unifying thread is youth, unemployment, and uncertainty about the future, as well as the suffocating state paternalism that underlies the wider malaise itself.
France’s chronic malaise is marked by periodic explosions of protest. The two most recent episodes – the rioting and arson in French cities last autumn and the successful student campaign earlier this year against a new law governing young labor-market entrants – seem to have little in common. But their unifying thread is youth, unemployment, and uncertainty about the future, as well as the suffocating state paternalism that underlies the wider malaise itself.