Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article on the French presidential elections. The country goes to the polls on 6 May, amid growing concerns about France’s economic stagnation. Whereas Germany has pursued some free-market reforms and been rewarded by an economic recovery, France’s economy suffers from slow growth combined with high unemployment. The WSJ reports:

Economists, business leaders and many policy makers in France agree that the world’s fifth-largest economy needs a smaller, more efficient state machinery and more flexible markets for labor, goods and services.

But French voters’ antipathy to “liberal” economics - which in Europe, unlike in the U.S., means free-market ideology - has prompted both presidential candidates in the runoff election to be cautious lest they seem too pro-business.

Only 36% of the French think a free-market economy is the best system, while 50% disagree - easily the highest level of skepticism about markets in any major economy, according to a 2005 study by the University of Maryland. Many voters think the desire of businesses to profit is the cause of, not the cure for, unemployment.

But in face of increasing economic stagnation, it might well be that enough French are coming to a realisation that statism - not the profit motive - is the cancer eating away at their economy. The 35 hour working week was supposed to create jobs. It didn’t. Draconian labour laws on laying off staff were supposed to protect workers. But they have meant companies do not want to hire people in the first place. Young people in particular lose out, with 20% of France’s 18-25 year olds unemployed, going up to 40% in the poorest communities. Only liberalism can fix this.