France’s image: Trying to look nicer

As France strives to impress the world, reality intrudes

FRANCE “thinks it is an exception to free-market rules”. French labour laws are “far too restrictive”. France's tax burden is “prohibitive”. The businessmen who lunched this week with Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the prime minister, did not merely exchange pleasantries over their lobster salad; they told him how many rich and powerful outsiders (in America, especially) view their country.

They had been summoned to suggest ways to make France more attractive to investors, and their host smiled politely as the complaints flowed. Such insights are supposed to help guide government policy - and inform an advertising campaign designed to boost France's image in the eyes of Anglo-Saxons and other sceptics.

But it is an awkward moment for a French PR drive. The prime minister's own popularity has sunk to 33%, from 41% in January. He only narrowly kept his job after his centre-right party's disastrous regional election results in March, likely to be repeated at polls for the European Parliament in June. Nor does it help that Mr Raffarin's spin doctor, Dominique Ambiel, resigned last week after being caught with an under-age prostitute in his car.

For another thing, the prime minister is under political pressure to be more socially-minded, and abandon policies that seem liberal. At times, the contradictions are blatant. Just as Mr Raffarin's Invest in France Agency was unveiling plans to prove French faith in the market, the government was practising old-style interventionism. It helped pull off a Franco-French drugs merger, rescuing one firm from the claws of a foreign rival.

In truth, there are misconceptions about France, which may deter investors. A nation of strike-happy unionists? As a share of the workforce, there are fewer French trade-union members than American, British or German; and there are fewer French days lost to strikes than in Italy or Spain. A country of bons viveurs who refuse to work hard? Measured per hour worked, the French are 8% more productive than Americans. The trouble is that so few of the French work: unemployment is now nearly 10%. And those who have jobs spend little time at them, thanks chiefly to the 35-hour week. In short, France has sacrificed higher incomes and growth for more free time. That choice may influence Anglo-Saxon investors, more than any effort to preen France's image.

Article discusses a French government initiative to improve its image outside France, especially to investors.

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