France’s Blame Game Begins

When it comes to the social disorder convulsing France, another wave of which is due this weekend, explanations abound. French failure to assimilate immigrants is a factor, and one that President Trump is spotlighting ahead of the midterms. These columns have marked the “ideological dimension of the violence,” fomented by the far left. Yet the former head of Europe’s central bank, Mario Draghi, is tracing the trouble to the continent’s crisis of growth.Mr. Draghi, in remarks with Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz, chalks up the violence to what he calls “blocked expectations” among the youth amid Europe’s “problem of missing growth.” Europe’s young people, in his telling, want to do as well as their parents, or what he calls “intergenerational social justice.” Yet in Europe’s economy, “when you have no growth that becomes very difficult to maintain,” Mr. Draghi avers, and “that generates anxiety.”The former central banker asserts that one has “a sense that” for Europe’s youth, the “social dynamics” are “blocked to them.” In other words, “they have a sense that they can’t easily find a job.” He adds that “they perceive a society in very fast technological transformation and they feel unequipped to deal with that.” This is not to say that Mr. Draghi is excusing the violence that he insists “should be condemned under all circumstances.”Yet Mr. Draghi concludes that the “crowd dynamics” and spirit of “confrontation” that has escalated in the rioting “are amplifiers rather than explanations.” He traces the frustration to “the underlying situation” of “a society that is rich, certainly old, and not growing.” So, he reckons, “when you don’t have growth, the ones who call the shots are the incumbents,” in short, “the old people.” The young people, he says, “feel sort of disenfranchised.”It’s not our intention here to suggest that any economic explanation can justify the explosion of violence that has set France on fire, leading to the destruction of such landmarks as, say, the city hall at Limoges. The frequent appearance of Palestinian flags, and concerns of antisemitism among the rioters, too, as these columns have noted, suggests an undertone to violence that cannot be attributed to mere dissatisfaction with the labor markets.Nor, though, is it our intention to ignore the economic factors fueling the unrest in France — and Europe more broadly. The youth unemployment rate in France, about 19 percent, is roughly double the level prevailing among young Americans. Yet here in America, too, unemployment among the young, at some 9 percent, is more than double the total unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, and young persons point to frustration finding entry-level jobs.This makes it all the more important for American conservatives not to misread the lessons of the French unrest. “This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country,” is how Mr. Trump depicts the disorder. To avoid similar trouble here, he says, “you’re going to have to remove those people that are insurrectionists.” Yet if part of the problem confronting France’s economy is what Mr. Draghi calls “fiscal profligacy,” America cannot be complacent.Federal debt, if not as proportionally large as France’s, now exceeds our gross domestic product. One doesn’t “need extraordinary efforts to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio” here, Mr. Draghi says, even as deficits are rising. That’s a red flag as the midterms near, per strategist Paul Shumaker. The GOP, he tells the Hill, has to focus on “restoring confidence with swing voters who are abandoning the party due to our failure to focus on economic issues.”

France’s Blame Game Begins

France’s Blame Game Begins

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