"You must not annoy the French" — how Paris is preparing the country for an era of permanent crises

The sentence seems casual, almost folksy. "Il ne faut pas emmerder les Français" – one must not burden the French any further. It was said by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu when presenting new aid against rising energy prices as a result of the escalation in the Middle East. Yet precisely in its demonstrative simplicity, this sentence reveals a remarkable political shift in France. Because Paris is visibly beginning not to prepare the population for a temporary crisis but for a permanent state of exception. The French government now speaks with ...