FigaroVox week - French failures

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"The French always count, in order to save themselves, in a power they hate, but saving themselves is the last thing they think about" wrote Tocqueville already. If the catastrophe we are going through brings up treasures of altruism and inventiveness, it also highlights the flaws of our national character: individualism, mistrust, demon of theory and statism. While our German neighbor seems to manage the virus better than we do, French failures are blatantly obvious. What if this global crisis was the occasion for national introspection?

"We have confused the scale of our health expenses with the efficiency of our organization" argues the former director of the regional hospital agency (ARH) of Burgundy Jean-Louis Segura .

The sociologist Philippe d'Iribarne emphasizes that the cult of equality that constitutes French mentalities makes it difficult to find a "tailor-made" response to the crisis.

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