Nostalgique et narcissique, la France est obsédée par son passé. Mais ce n’est pas en se regardant le nombril qu’elle va passer sans dommages à travers la crise de l’euro.

Mathieu von Rohr, le Spiegel

If it could have its way, all of France would be one small Gaulish village like in the Asterix comic books, holding out against the rest of the world. But unlike the village in the famous French comic book series, France has no magic potion. At the same time, polls show that the French are the most pessimistic people in the world, which leads to the unusual situation that although they are convinced — like village leader Vitalstatistix — that the sky is falling down, they are unwilling to do anything about it.

Instead, France, in the crisis, insists more than ever on being France. It’s been 220 years since the country beheaded its king, and yet it still treats its president as a monarch. With that mentality, how can it be expected to simply change? The French still believe that the world adapts to imagination. There is something appealing about this. It is an attempt to maintain order in a world in which chaos prevails.

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