The drama of Brexit may soon be matched or eclipsed by crystallizing events in France, where the Long Slump is at last taking its political toll.

A democracy can endure deflation policies for only so long. The attrition has wasted the French centre-right and the centre-left by turns, and now threatens the Fifth Republic itself.

The maturing crisis has echoes of 1936, when the French people tired of 'deflation decrees' and turned to the once unthinkable Front Populaire, smashing what remained of the Gold Standard.

Former Gaulliste president Nicolas Sarkozy has caught the headlines this week, launching a come-back bid with a package of hard-Right policies unseen in a western European democracy in modern times.

But the uproar on the Left is just as revealing. Arnaud Montebourg, the enfant terrible of the Socialist movement, has launched his own bid for the Socialist Party with a critique of such ferocity that it bears examination.

The former economy minister says France voted for a left-wing French manifesto four years ago and ended up with a "right-wing German policy regime". This is objectively true. The vote was meaningless.

"I believe that we have reached the end of road for the European Union, and that France no longer has any interest in it. The EU has left us mired in crisis long after the rest of the world has moved on," he said.

Mr Montebourg stops short of 'Frexit' but calls for the unilateral suspension of EU labour laws. "As far as I am concerned, the current treaties have elapsed.

David Fuller's view

The predictable fragmentation of the Eurozone is likely to be a somewhat angry process as we are already seeing.  That is unfortunate and not without risks but I think many Europeans will also focus on a return to the European Common Market.  This would once again consist of independent democracies with control over their own currencies, freely trading with each other.  They should also consider using a separate commercial unit of exchange for convenience, as I have mentioned previously.  We have seen that the risks of open borders outweigh the benefits and the use of passports or secure identity cards for citizens within the European Common Market is a minor inconvenience. 

The unravelling of the EU will make the UK’s exit less complicated, as there is no need for punitive policies or inane complications, previously strategized by Brussels officials to prevent countries from leaving.  If Germany wants to trade with the UK, and it does, then so will the rest of Europe.  

 Here is a PDF of AE-P’s article.