Abstract
France has the sixth largest economy in the world, it is the fourth biggest exporter of services and the third largest investor abroad. It is a permanent member of the UN security council and a declared nuclear power. In addition to that, France is a mainstay of the European Union and a longstanding promoter of European integration, despite the rejection of the draft constitution on May 2005. Nevertheless, there is a sour mood in France caused by some anxiety about economic and social issues. The French welfare system seems no longer appropriate for a globalized world, and sustainable in the face of demographic pressure, mounting debt or persistent unemployment. The riots in the poorer suburbs in November 2005 gave hints of how disenchanted one segment of the population has become. At the same time, even fairly modest reforms, such as the CPE, provoked massive demonstrations and strikes. French writters have even invented a word to sum up the belief that France is unreformable, the word declinism. Finding a way to overcome this social crisis will be one of the key issues in the next presidential election.
