France likes rhetoric but scorns its fine speeches being put into practice. Politics is about words... and often only that. So what about the new hot topic in Parisian circles: industrial policy?

The French government is rediscovering state voluntarism. It recently created an economic intelligence agency entrusted with defending the interests of French groups around the world. President Jacques Chirac blocked an agreement with the Californian legal system over Executive Life to help his friend François Pinault, before finally accepting it.