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Article snippet: PARIS — The people running France would like to clear up what they contend is an unfortunate misunderstanding: They are not ditching the egalitarian ideals of French society for the ravages of global capitalism. Yes, the investment banker turned president, Emmanuel Macron, has decreed alterations to the famously voluminous French labor code that make it less of an expensive hassle for employers to fire workers. He unabashedly champions greater risk as a key to rejuvenating the moribund economy. But the changes unleashed are supposed to come with greater support for workers via expanded unemployment benefits and revamped training programs. It is a plan modeled on that veritable workers’ paradise, the Nordic countries, and not on brutal, winner-take-all societies like the United States and Britain. To sell its changes to a dubious French public, Mr. Macron’s administration has even imported a term coined in Denmark: flexicurity, a portmanteau of flexibility and security. “We need to adapt France to globalization while still being French,” said Antoine Foucher, chief of staff to the French labor minister, pushing back against the notion that neoliberal economics has seized the land of Rousseau. “We need flexibility, but also a new kind of welfare system, with more rights for people taking risks, and more rights for people who are not finding their place in globalization.” Yet in draping labor reforms under the banner of the Nordic way, Mr. Macron’s administration co... Link to the full article to read more