France’s prognosis is not good. From Guy Millière at gatestoneinstitute.org:
- France was, in addition, paralyzed from any kind of growth by a proliferation of regulations and an omnipresent bureaucracy.
- During France’s lockdown, a law was passed to fine heavily (250.000 euros, $275,000) any social network that published what a judge might consider “hateful”; people are also now asked to report to the justice department any suspicious statement they read or hear about. Since schools and high schools have reopened, teachers were invited by the government to listen to the conversations of their students and immediately to report any comment criticizing the government.
- “At the source of French misfortune, there are French traitors who bear French first names. They have been abusing the voters’ trust for more than 40 years. They lied about the real state of society and ransacked the country”. — Ivan Rioufol, columnist, Le Figaro, February 19, 2020.
 French police, during the pandemic, have been ordered to avoid going into no-go zones. The government might have feared that if an incident occurred, riots could break out. On April 19, a young man riding a motorcycle at high speed hit the door of a police car near a sensitive zone in a suburb of Paris and was injured: for days, throughout the country, buildings and cars were burned. Pictured: A rioter shoots fireworks at police in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, in the northern suburbs of Paris, on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images) |
The coronavirus pandemic in the northern hemisphere seems starting to subside — perhaps just temporarily.
Many journalists wonder if Italy, one of the eight countries most affected in Western Europe, will leave the EU. Another country of concern is France — not in great shape.
