Does the generation gap widen ?

Alain Jeannet, chief editor of the weekly, voices the fear that a generation war is developing. "It is still in its larval stage and people do not realise, but a situation of war between the old and young is taking hold. It is an awkward term because war has not been declared and it is not between goodies and baddies. But the figures are there. The coming generations know their retirement pensions will be less than what they paid into it. Young people sense their standard of living will be lower than their parents'. In France the current protest over the CPE [labour reform law, 'first employment contract'] is a caricatural expression of this malaise." Jeannet quotes German thinker Frank Schirmacher and author of 'Das Mathusalem Komplott' [The Mathusalem Plot]: "Whatever we do we will live for decades in a society where there is a chronic lack of young people."

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