Is France on the brink of revolution? Is President François Hollande in danger of being dragged to the guillotine? These sound like silly questions. In fact, they are silly questions. Yet talk of a new revolution is surprisingly common in France these days. This week’s edition of Le Point, a leading news weekly, asks on its cover, “Are we in 1789?”, and illustrates the question with a picture of Mr Hollande, dressed up as Louis XVI, the hapless monarch executed by the revolutionaries. Even academics are making the comparison. Dominique Moïsi, a visiting professor at the University of London, has argued that the president “looks ever more like a modern Louis XVI” and that France is in the grip of a “regime crisis”.
法国正处在革命边缘么？法国总统弗朗索瓦•奥朗德(François Hollande)会被送上断头台么？这些听起来似乎是很愚蠢的问题。事实上，这些确实是很愚蠢的问题。然而最近在法国有关新革命的言论屡见不鲜，这一点非常令人震惊。法国著名新闻周刊《观点》(Le Point)在本周出版的期刊封面上问道：“我们回到了1789年？”问题的旁边是一张被打扮成路易十六(Louis XVI)模样的奥朗德照片，路易十六正是那位被革命者处决的倒霉君主。而现在连学术界也在把两者相提并论。伦敦大学访问学者多米尼克•莫伊西(Dominique Moïsi)声称，奥朗德“看上去越来越像现代版的路易十六”，法国正陷于一场“政权危机”中。