Europe used to be a constant in French politics: no mainstream party questioned the benefits of further integration. This year the taboo has been broken. First François Hollande, the Socialist challenger for the presidency, said that if elected, he would renegotiate the eurozone’s new fiscal pact. Then Nicolas Sarkozy declared France could pull out of the Schengen zone of border-free travel and threatened to take unilateral, protectionist measures on trade that would clearly be viewed as illegal in Brussels.
Last week’s killings in Toulouse have also reignited fears – exploited by the far right – of French society under siege. The rise of anti-European sentiment, however, is just the latest “avatar” of a hostility to globalisation that has become a basic ingredient of political debate. In most developed countries, globalisation excites concern; in France, it is an obsession.
Each year 80m tourists visit France to sample the art de vivre for which the country is renowned. But the French themselves seem to have lost the formula: poll after poll, they appear more and more pessimistic.