is there an effort to 'tone it down' as time goes by, or is it still lauded unconditionally, like the awmerican one? ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
The values of the Republic (Liberté, égalité, fraternité) are pretty much the only common themes from the left to the right of the political spectrum. Even the Front National speaks of defending the Republic.
If there's any effort to tone down historical achievements , it is the more recent ones, the ones that have been put together in the aftermath of WWII: social security, health insurance, collective bargaining in the workplace, several weeks of paid vacation... everything that we collectively refer to as "the French social model" that neo-lib advocates regularly decry as "unsustainable". Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
