France is becoming the next financial crisis in Europe. The level of debt/GDP for France vs Germany is shown below. Years of financial stagnation, with zero spending discipline, has resulted in the extraordinarily high debt for France relative to the size of it's economy. The bond markets are now demanding higher interest rates to buy French debt. When this happened to Greece back in 2010, requiring bailouts, it was manageable because Greece was relatively small compared to Germany and could be bailed out. France's total debt is about 8x larger than Greece. It is not possible for Germany to bailout France this time. The only possible bailout would be the European Central Bank, which would have to print trillions of Euros to buy French debt. France at the same time would be required to impose massive austerity budget cuts to receive the bailout. Look at the protests happening now, that is child's play compared to the riots when France has to do real hardcore budget cuts. Source: Bloomberg article, “France’s Political Paralysis Puts It in Bondholders’ Crosshairs.”