Jaques Attali - Coming out on top 08/04/2013
Each country, clearly, looks at the world from the top of its bell-tower. And the landscape of France, at the moment, seen from this perspective, is not particularly exciting.

Each country, clearly, looks at the world from the top of its bell-tower. And the landscape of France, at the moment, seen from this perspective, is not particularly exciting.

François Hollande professes to be a perennial optimist. When he was elected to the Elysée, the economic and social crisis in France was already dire, but he bet publicly on an upturn by this year. Bad luck.

Will military intervention in Mali reveal the real François Hollande? If the country is returning by default – in light of US reticence – to the position of the west’s gendarme in francophone Africa, will its president finally appear presidential in the eyes of French citizens?