Dear France: A friend’s tough love letter

Dear France,

I conscionable wanted to fto you cognize astatine this hard clip that I'm present for you.

I'm nary gloating Englishman sneering from the different broadside of the Channel. I genuinely emotion you and your magnificent country. I adjacent worked for 1 of your esteemed banks for 5 years backmost successful the nineties and person conscionable travel backmost from different large vacation successful your astonishing state — a spot I person visited for implicit 40 years, a spot wherever my large gramps lies to remainder aft warring for liberty. I see myself a Francophile, a friend.

But each friends request to beryllium honorable with each other, to archer each different location truths erstwhile it's needed, to face those awkward moments without fearfulness of the reaction.

You fto maine cognize the folly of my ways 9 years agone during Brexit. You fto maine cognize that we were going down a way of self-harm and present it's clip for maine to instrumentality the favor.

Okay, the information it this can't spell on. You are astonishing but not exceptional. You request to recognize that you are tempting destiny by ignoring the information that you are surviving mode beyond your means, and it's not going to extremity well.

Fifteen years you got distant with it. The enslaved markets gave you a walk erstwhile they were tearing into Greece, Italy, Ireland, and all. At the clip I retrieve reasoning "Why not France? Why aren't the OATs getting hammered?" I presumed the reply was that you were conscionable excessively large to fail, that Germany would ne'er let you to endure the aforesaid ignominy that others were suffering mostly successful Southern Europe.

But would it person done immoderate bully to person gotten the symptom implicit and done with, backmost successful 2010? Maybe you would person taken a hard look successful the reflector similar the Irish and the Spanish and reappraised your spending, your generous status age, your tremendous nationalist spending astatine the time?

As you accidental adieu to yet different premier minister, Francois Bayrou, who fell connected his sabre aft failing to get 44 cardinal euros of cuts ($51.8 billion) done the National Assembly, you cognize the adjacent and the adjacent and the adjacent candidates up the ramp for that relation volition endure a akin destiny unless you face the hard truths.

As Bayrou himself enactment it, "You person the powerfulness to topple the government, but you don't person the powerfulness to erase reality."

So, bon accidental my friends, and erstwhile you are acceptable to beryllium bold and face the existent world, I volition beryllium determination for you.