Annette Young is pleased to welcome Renaud Foucart, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics ECARES at Lancaster University. France’s 1.6% minimum-wage increase, in response to the countrywide protests, may offer a temporary reprieve from social unrest, but it does little to resolve the deeper political and institutional crisis confronting the country. According to Foucart, the central problem extends beyond declining purchasing power, fiscal constraints and the limitations of a minority government. It concerns a growing loss of faith in politics itself. “They are in the street because they don’t believe politics can achieve anything,” Foucart argues, suggesting that the persistence of mass demonstrations ahead of the presidential election reflects profound disillusionment with the political system’s capacity to deliver meaningful change.
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