Que penser de la France dans ce “mois des fous”? Et de Evans-Pritchard?

Finalement, c’est, par certains côtés, un article étrange ou/et ironique que celui de Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, dans le Daily Telegraph d’hier. Il décrit la situation française, pas loin d’être hors de contrôle selon lui ; il retranscrit les avertissements de “la patronne des patrons”, Laurence Parisot, commentant curieusement ses paroles comme étant celle d’une féministe, tendance tradition française de l’apaisement: « “We've reached a point of crisis that is dangerous for the country,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers' group MEDEF. “It's terribly dangerous for our economy. I really don't think a woman would have felt the need to go to such extremes,” she said, suggesting the dispute was a virility test. »

Plus loin, en fin d’article, ces trois paragraphes de conclusion, mêlant les critiques les plus conformistes à quelques vérités inhabituelles, et terminant par une chute qu’on croirait ironique ou bien complètement contradictoire. (Notre ami Richard North, lui, l’a pris très sérieusement, comme en témoigne son commentaire de l’article de Evans-Pritchard, sur le passage en question : « I was intrigued by the article in the Business section. Ambrose Evans Pritchard outlines the various problems France is facing but comes to the rather surprising conclusion that “In the long-run, France will out-perform, perhaps reclaiming its 18th-Century title as the Continent's hegemon, as it alone has avoided a collapse in birth rates.” A very long run, I’d say and most French would agree with me... »)

Enfin, voici ces trois paragraphes intéressants, ou surprenants, finalement correspondant bien à ce “mois des fous” dont nous avons partout les échos, — et pas seulement en France. « So far, the reflex of French elites has been a retreat into “economic patriotism”, an armoury of protectionist laws to block foreign takeovers; a shotgun marriage of Suez with Gaz de France to lock out Enel; an ugly welcome to Mittal's bid for Arcelor.

» The body-language is more hostile than the reality. Some 42pc of shares in the CAC40 blue-chip listings of the Paris bourse are foreign-owned, compared with 33pc for the London's FTSE 100.

» In the long-run, France will out-perform, perhaps reclaiming its 18th-Century title as the Continent's hegemon, as it alone has avoided a collapse in birth rates. But it may have to look into the abyss first. »