Is the whole world really laughing at France over its endless government dramas, jailed ex president and that Louvre heist? Perhaps, a bit. But it’s not as bad as a lot of French people seem to fear, writes Emma Pearson.
It’s been a tumultuous few weeks in France; the government has fallen, risen, fallen again and frankly who knows what is going on now. On top of that, a former head of state has been jailed for the first time since World War II and thieves took jewellery worth €88 million from the Louvre with embarrassing ease.
The sentiment that I’ve heard over and over again over the past few weeks is fear that the whole world is laughing at France.
The French justice minister’s first reaction to the Louvre theft was to say: “We have failed and this gives a deplorable image of France.”
Meanwhile cultural commentator Stéphane Bern mourned that: “We’re the laughing stock of the world.”
And I hear ordinary people say it over and over again in the past few weeks, cringing at what they see as the latest embarrassment and failure of their country, and the conviction that the whole world is laughing at them.
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For a people often labelled arrogant (with some justification), I find that the fear of being laughed at is surprisingly prevalent in France.
In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, the prevailing sentiment in the capital was fear that the Games would be a disaster and everyone would laugh at France.
While the Games were excellent, even France’s best friends could not describe the country’s last few months as successful.
So is the world in fact laughing at France’s recent travails? Sure, a bit. But I don’t think there is as much mockery as the French fear.
Let’s take jailbird Nicolas Sarkozy first – is it ideal that a former president was found to have been associated with a plot to take election cash from Moamer Kadhafi’s regime in Libya? Clearly not.
But is sending him to jail a bad look for the country, as many French right-wing politicians and media have claimed? Most foreigners would say ‘absolutely not’ – having an independent judiciary that convicts and punishes both the rich and the poor without fear or favour is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.
In applying a punishment to the former president in accordance with the judicial code, the same code that applies to everyone else, France has sent a powerful signal about the independence of its courts.
Far from laughing, the most common reaction I hear, especially from the US, is admiration that a country applies the law equally to all and is not afraid to punish someone just because they are wealthy and important.
If there is anything about this affair that brings shame on France, it’s the calls in certain right-wing media that Sarkozy should somehow be treated differently because of who he is. Fortunately for the French, not many foreigners read those newspaper opinion columns.
The theft from the Louvre was undoubtedly embarrassing, especially given how easy it seems to be to steal from the world’s most famous museum.
Did it inspire a lot of memes and online jokes? Undoubtedly. But high-profile and daring heists like this will always attract international attention, and once it was clear no-one was hurt in the robbery, the internet commentators – and super-suave American actor George Clooney – were free to joke.
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Some of the jokes – such as the mysterious ‘dapper gentleman’ photographed outside the museum who was initially (incorrectly) presumed to be a French detective – were actually quite flattering to France, playing into the image that all French men are handsome and immaculately dressed.
This photo accompanying a news story about the heist at the Louvre is perfection.
— Carrie Tait (@carrietait.bsky.social) October 19, 2025 at 11:56 PM
It does appear the security at the Louvre could do with an overhaul, but it’s very far from being the only museum in the world to be the victim of a theft.
The British Museum is still looking for up to 1,800 pieces that it believes were stolen by an employee, over a period of months or possibly years, during which no-one noticed that they were missing.
Meanwhile the Dutch are hunting for a Van Gogh that disappeared in the early days of the Covid shutdowns, while the ‘greatest art heist in the world’ occurred in Boston, USA, where thieves walked off with a priceless collection of Vermeer paintings in 1990. The artworks are still missing.
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And finally the government crisis – while the subject of probably the biggest cringe in France itself – is getting surprisingly little traction in the rest of the world.
Partly, I think, it’s because it is complicated and centred on dull subjects like credit ratings and parliamentary processes.
Partly it’s because only the truly dedicated political watchers outside France can even name the French prime minister – the president is the one who has international name recognition – so trying to persuade people that it’s important that someone you have never heard of has lost their job is tricky.
READ ALSO: What does a French Prime Minister actually do?
But also it’s because plenty of other countries have problems of their own – yes, having 5 prime ministers in 2 years is clearly sub-optimal and that week when the prime minister named a government, resigned and was reinstated all within five days was obviously farcical.
French people are generally swinging from despair to anger to helpless laughter at just how ridiculous it all is.
Outside France, however, people may raise a smile but they’re soon distracted by the problems of their own politics, which in the case of the US is darker than anything France can serve up (yet).
France undoubtedly has plenty of problems right now, but when it comes to being laughed at, I think the French can relax.
If the rest of the world is laughing, it’s only as a brief distraction from their own problems.