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2d ago

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The Hôtel de Ville in Limoges, central France, on fire during a weekend of unrest. Photograph: Pascal Lachenaud/AFP/Getty Images

After weeks of protests and a weekend of riots in which a town hall was set ablaze, 2,000-plus shops were looted, 2,300 people were arrested and 1,000 police injured, the repercussions for France – for its society and its economy – continue. Allegations of police brutality surfaced, and the violent protests unnerved investors, resulting in a debt sell-off , with borrowing costs rising higher than for Greece. All of this ahead of a hotly contested presidential election that’s now just six months away.

The French government’s escalating financial problems were covered by the Guardian’s Europe correspondent Jon Henley who wrote: “France’s national debt, at 119% of GDP, is at its highest level since 1946 . Its budget deficit, at 5.1%, is also among the highest in the EU.…