When things got tough, European finance ministers used to sigh and say that at least they were not Greek. Today, some would struggle to make such a comment. On December 2nd the yield on Greek bonds fell below that on French ones, indicating investors thought it safer to lend to Greece than France. The yield on French bonds is now 0.8 percentage points above German bunds, the euro zone’s benchmark, which is the widest gap since the near-collapse of the euro in 2012. On December 4th the French government crumbled in a row over spending.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Maladie chronique”