90% top tax rate and early retirement for all? France really has ditched far-right

In Paris, it is a pain au chocolat but in Bordeaux it is a chocolatine. If you want to understand why the current political situation in France is going to be so hard to resolve, you only have to look at the nation’s inability to agree on the name of a pastry. The row over it even led to legislation being tabled in parliament so agreeing who is going to run the nation after the recent elections is to say the least, going to be tricky.

It's all very French. As the rest of mainland Europe moves towards the right in politics, France sniffed that in the first round of the recent parliamentary elections, disliked it as much as an unripe cheese, so then lurched to the left. The result was a hung parliament.

The largest group is the New Popular Front and they are now trying to form a government based on a promise to raise tax for high earners to 90 per cent and lower the retirement age when everyone else is raising it. Again, so very French.

No one does food, fashion and flair like the French but they do seem to find politics to be a bit of a bore.  If ours is just changing the guard at Buckingham Palace, in France it’s like Saturday closing time in a rough pub on payday.

Trotskyists to monarchists

The Fifth Republic came about in 1958 following huge upheavals and an attempted military coup, followed by an attempt to assassinate President De Gaulle in 1962, then the 1968 student riots, and more recently former President Chirac being found guilty of corruption. 

While we just bounce between Labour, the Conservatives and the SNP with a few Lib Dems thrown in for fun, in France they have a buffet of everything from Trotskyists to a party dedicated to bringing back the king.  We might also have a government leaning to the left but drawing any further parallels is unwise.

Identity cards have been compulsory in France since the Second World War and they think our civil-rights based timidity around the subject is just bonkers. While we fret about nuclear power, in France it produces 70 per cent of electricity and is the nation’s third-biggest industrial employer. Then there is the national fondness for taking to the barricades in response to the slightest thing and protesting on the streets over issues that would barely raise a shrug here.

A nation in decline?

I lived in France for two years and found it endlessly fascinating. How can a country twice the UK’s size not collapse into chaos when traffic from the right has priority at junctions and roundabouts…. sometimes.  And as for the politics, everyone knew President Mitterrand had a daughter with his mistress but it was never mentioned in the media. Maybe Boris Johnson should have stood for office across the Channel?

France has a difficult few weeks ahead as the parties try to stitch together a coalition. But there are two key factors that will force a resolution. France needs to find solutions to the problems that have left 75 per cent of people telling pollsters they feel the nation is in decline. But more than that, the traditional long August holiday is just around the corner and no French politician will ever want to miss that.