France Surrenders! (Again)

In France, a Bullet Goes Unbitten
By FLOYD NORRIS

Nearly two years ago, the chief executive of one of the largest international companies based in France described what he viewed as the best chance for needed economic reform that would open up European economies by making it much easier to hire and fire workers.

It was, he said, something that politicians from all parties knew was necessary, but that was unlikely to be popular with voters. The answer, he said, was for parties in the major Continental economies to accept the unpopularity that would come from economic change, so that each government would expect to be replaced at the next election by a government that would then offend voters by adopting more such legislation, and in turn be replaced.

The best chance for that, he said privately, was in Germany. He saw France as far less likely to have it work, in part because even the supposedly conservative parties were becoming more and more opposed to change.

He got the unpopularity part right, a fact that was clear both in the inability of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to win re-election in Germany last fall, and in yesterday's abrupt surrender by the French president, Jacques Chirac, as he revoked a law his government had put into effect aimed at making it easier to hire and fire workers under 26.

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