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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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• France 2001
  
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The cause for the last crisis seems more than trivial. The government wanted to liberalize the labor contracts for people below 26 that just enter the labor market. The rigid labor laws, making everyone entitled to work, basically for life, after a very short probation period, make no company particularly interested in hiring new employees. Therefore almost a quarter of all below 30 are out of job, many for years. Being unable to give to everyone permanent job for life, the society has two options: to keep the status quo, leaving millions on the bottom, or giving anyone a chance (not a right!) to work that will eliminate the entitlement to the jobs. The government opted for the second solution; the majority opted for the status quo.

After some weeks of showdown it seems that the government is pulling back. Until a second bill is passed to eliminate the most radical elements of the first bill, in fact eliminating its reason to exist, there will be no changes in the labor laws. The state seems incapable of imposing its will on the conservative majority of the society. If it's incapable of doing this, many are asking whether there is effectively a state in France to legislate, or the laws have to be made after public showdowns where the force is the final arbiter.

Additional oil in the fire of this argument is coming from the fact that this is the third time since 2005 when the French government looks helpless, the other times being the rejection of the European constitution and the social/ethnic clashes in the suburbs. It's an irony that the proposed labor bill was originally intended to heal the wounds from the recent suburban riots before the presidential election in 2007. As it looks, the results so far are quite opposite. The French neighbors right now ridicule its politicians and its president and prime minister will hardly be able to change their 'lame duck' appearance during the final run for the presidency. Some are even expecting a social implosion on a national, even on a continental scale.

Fortunately France is far from such apocalyptic scenarios. Labor rigidity and economic immobility in most fields doesn't change the fact that France remains one of the best countries for investment and for spending money. This country is remarkably friendly to investors and customers as anyone can witness. This is the reason how it manages to keep moving ahead, even at slower pace, despite its so many irrational regulations. It's because of its affluence, in absolute and relative terms, that it may still keep alive the myths that it may keep an irrational social system on its own, independently of the world economic pressures. As long as the French corporations are able to make money and to fill up the French public coffers, the French public opinion won't accept any compromise with its cherished sense of work entitlement.

France lives in two parallel worlds, one is capitalist and turns around supply and demand, and the other is socialist, which turns around ideology. The irony is that they both are doing very well, each in its own sphere of influence. It will be unreasonable to except that one of them will give up soon given that they have both coexisted well for some many generations. Nobody among the French politicians seems capable of overcoming this opposition, and pending a deep economic crisis that may change the way people think and behave there are no reasons either to believe in miracle economic solutions or to fear catastrophic social implosions.

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