The public debt of the French state – the amount that it owes the lenders who have been keeping the lights on now for decades – approaches three and a half trillion euros. Last year alone, the French added about €170billion more in debt. To put that in context, the total public spending of Ireland is about €125billion. So, France’s budget deficit is about one and a half times total Irish public expenditure.
Yesterday, President Macron lost his seventh Prime Minister in eight years. The French legislature is hopelessly divided, but the President cannot dare call for new parliamentary elections because, not to put too fine a point on it, the wrong people from his point of view would almost certainly win. Either the left would win and trash his cherished pension reforms – making France’s financial hole even bigger. Or worse, the right might win and trash his cherished pension reforms, making France’s financial hole even bigger.
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