Spiegel Online wonders why Germans are so calm while France seems to be destabilizing.

…the French weekly newspaper Courrier International writes that a “touch of revolt” is taking hold throughout the country. Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin even believes that France is on the eve of a “revolution.” The signs include plant occupations, wildcat strikes and workers taking managers hostage.

In early March, the manager of a Sony plant was held against his will, and 10 days later workers held an executive of the pharmaceutical company 3M hostage. Workers occupied a plant owned by US construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar in the western city of Grenoble and detained the entire management team, while directors at chemical producer Scapa, transportation company FM Logistic and Peugeot-Citroën supplier Faurecia were subjected to similar treatment. The management of automotive supplier Molex were held hostage in their offices for about 26 hours.

I have not read about this kind of rise in physical danger for executives in other news sources. Is there a revolutionary threat? After all, this is really a story about differences in expression between France and Germany and some might conclude that the French are often on strike anyway.

Likewise the quote by a right-wing politician like Dominique de Villepin could be written-off as sour grapes about Sarkozy’s victory — trying to paint as negative a forecast as possible to win votes and position himself for another election. On the other hand Villepin is certainly is someone who knows something about revolution, given his role in training the troops and militias that performed the massacres in Rwanda according to an independent commission report in 2008.

In any case, while the US administration has warned of uprisings by the right and left during economic downturns, other countries are clearly facing similar pressures.