Yes France has been in relative decline my whole life; I agree its not 'worked' since DeGaulle.The problem with the 5th Republic and its Constitution is that it is entirely created for one man (The General); its a government of a man and not systemic. This inherently dooms it to instability as his better imitators (Pompidou and even Giscard) fade from the scene. All we are left with is a Constitution for a General and midgets like Holland and poseurs like the current President
No different from the twilight of François Mittérand in 1994 (already sick of cancer then), when I actually lived in France - at the risk of violent gang attacks in the unstaffed Lyon underground and an occasional tear gas assault when walking over the Place Bellecour in the centre of Lyon Perrache (you never get used to tear gas). I would particularly stay away from the terraces near Cordeliers today - used to be alright to dine but no more for me.
Mittérand cobbled himself a government out of "la gauche plurielle" - my secretary was a devoted, locally elected communist. Nice lady though.
I handed the job offer at the completion of my Post Doc at IFP to a colleague from my former Belgian university - poor man has been stuck there ever since. France has only gotten worse, more desperate since.
France was last successful when Charles de Gaulle ran it, in the 1960ies: nuclear, aviation, TGV...
Yes France has been in relative decline my whole life; I agree its not 'worked' since DeGaulle.The problem with the 5th Republic and its Constitution is that it is entirely created for one man (The General); its a government of a man and not systemic. This inherently dooms it to instability as his better imitators (Pompidou and even Giscard) fade from the scene. All we are left with is a Constitution for a General and midgets like Holland and poseurs like the current President
No different from the twilight of François Mittérand in 1994 (already sick of cancer then), when I actually lived in France - at the risk of violent gang attacks in the unstaffed Lyon underground and an occasional tear gas assault when walking over the Place Bellecour in the centre of Lyon Perrache (you never get used to tear gas). I would particularly stay away from the terraces near Cordeliers today - used to be alright to dine but no more for me.
Mittérand cobbled himself a government out of "la gauche plurielle" - my secretary was a devoted, locally elected communist. Nice lady though.
I handed the job offer at the completion of my Post Doc at IFP to a colleague from my former Belgian university - poor man has been stuck there ever since. France has only gotten worse, more desperate since.
France was last successful when Charles de Gaulle ran it, in the 1960ies: nuclear, aviation, TGV...