France facing a tidal wave of protest

France could face its worst period of social unrest for a decade, analysts and commentators warned, as Dominique de Villepin’s centre-right government returns today from its summer break.

With petrol prices soaring, economic growth hesitant, trade unions furious, public confidence in the country and its political leaders at rock-bottom and a string of unpopular reforms still lying ahead, conditions are ripe for what one analyst, Gerard Mermet, called “genuine social upheaval”.