"successive governments have squandered national wealth and heritage to maintain a protectionist, Soviet-style state"
Yes, and leftists (Democrats in the U.S.) would love to do to the United States what they have done to France (and California and Russia and Cuba)--and they will if the American people are stupid enough to let them.
"France, he says, is ripe for a near-revolutionary change
Wrong! France is ripe for a revolutionary change--and it's going to be much worse than M. Baverez thinks! Unless the French people wake up soon and face reality, the revolutionary change is going to be a Muslim takeover, and it's going to be much worse than the 1789 revolutionary change.
"France is losing its soul to mediocrity and needs a great leader"
Yes, and that great leader has stood before them for three years--President George Bush--urging the French people to act with him to save not only themselves but Western Civilization.
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
There is no soul-sapping drug like decadence.
This won't be a revolution. It'll be a civil war.