France is not only "experiencing economic difficulties". France has never experienced such difficulties. I'm not talking numbers, S&P ratings, or else, but as the population's feeling, buying power and general happiness.
I think that something was forgotten here, and it's the environment in which you cut spendings/raise taxes. Cutting spendings in the USA, where the policies are already ultra-capitalistic and spendings and small, it might be bad - In a country like France, with a left tendency (even when right is governing, it's way more socialist than the USA), cutting spendings sometimes doesn't hurt - and it's hard to justify more spendings.
When Sarkozy (right) was governing and the crisis started, he adopted a "cut spendings" policy, as criticized so much in this article, and well, it was obviously not welcomed by the people, but it allowed the country to get through the crises better than most other european countries. A lot of things seemed really bad and implemented, mostly because of the newspapers being biased and wanting to sell. e.g. a big scandal when he raised the age limit for retirement. It was only for one or two years on average, and a lot of "dangerous" and "hard" jobs categories were not touched. There were simply no more money in the bank, and paying was just impossible unless raising debt and printing money. No thanks. And when you compare, the retirement system in France was the more generous in Europe, with average retirement age often lower of 5+ years. This is just an example amongst others.
Now Hollande is governing (left). For the quick background, he is the complete opposite of Sarkozy. Sarkozy was the "bling bling" president, loving America and capitalism, etc. Hollande said on television he hates rich people, and does everything to be the poor class, normal, president. Robin Hood in a sense. Higher taxes (75% for one million revenue), more taxes if your net worth is high (even if no income), to the point that every rich known personality from France (actors, businessmen, etc.) are leaving and getting other nationalities, to not have to pay those taxes, because too high.
When you are in your 20s, and get out of school a Master, or 2, which is the norm now if you want to be able to hope to find a job, there is an all-time high unemployment rate. Opportunities are rare, etc.
And now, Hollande is the less-appreciated president of all time for France. His popularity was the lowest a president ever had after only a few months of presidency.
So, I am no politics analyst, or whatever, but this is a feeling as a person from France, seeing my country getting worse and worse because everything done is against entrepreneurship and lowering workers motivations. Seeing all my fellow french moving to the US, Canada, Argentina, Asia, and after only a few weeks, being so glad to call those places home, and saying they would never go back to France, because anywhere they are, it's so much better.
I'm not saying we should always cut taxes and never spend more, but this article misses a lot of point and is not really objective - "France’s remarkable health care system, which delivers high quality at low cost"- Yes it's remarkable, but it costs A LOT.
Just my 2cents :)