Julien* left Paris in December. “I didn’t feel happy in France any more,” said the restaurant entrepreneur, now based in Georgian capital Tbilisi.<\/p>\n
At his restaurant, Julien had observed a clear drop in customer numbers this year. “I’ve lost a lot of customers this year. People can’t afford to go out and shop like they used to,” he told Euronews.<\/p>\n
In his view, there is”a lack of opportunities” for entrepreneurs,”a monstrous tax burden in France” and above all”a very bad atmosphere overall”.<\/p>\n
Antoine, an engineer in the luxury goods sector in the French capital, shares this unease, even if he has not yet taken the plunge.<\/p>\n
He said he “adores” his city, where he was born and works, but added he felt an increasing urge to leave. <\/p>\n
In Canada, he said he had rediscovered “a kind of acceptance of others” that he no longer felt in France. <\/p>\n
In France, he lamented, “there’s a lot of hatred between people.” “People prefer to pull at each other rather than help each other,” he added.<\/p>\n
On the material front, despite a career in management, Antoine told Euronews that he has reached an impasse: without an inheritance, he explains that he couldn’t buy his own place on his own or even “live in the town where I was born”.<\/p>\n
The testimonies reflect a more general malaise: according to a Gallup survey<\/a> published on Monday, more than a quarter of French people are considering moving abroad permanently.<\/p>\n The spectacular rise, unprecedented for nearly 20 years, follows a sharp decline in confidence in institutions and a political climate perceived as increasingly anxiety-provoking.<\/p>\n A massive fall in confidence<\/p>\n Against a backdrop of significant political instability and lasting economic pessimism, the drop-off is reflected in a massive desire to go elsewhere.<\/p>\n According to the institute, 27% of adults in France say they would like to move abroad permanently if they had the chance, up from 11% last year. <\/p>\n A spectacular increase, rare on a global scale, placing France among the countries with the largest annual growth in the desire to emigrate since the institute began asking this question in 2007.<\/p>\n After several years of relative stability, confidence in the national government fell to 29%, a drop of 13 points in one year. <\/p>\n Confidence in the judicial system (50%) and in financial institutions (42%) also fell sharply. In 2025, no other EU member state recorded a comparable average decline across these indicators.<\/p>\n According to Benedict Vigers, senior editor at Gallup in France, confidence in French institutions typically remains stable from one year to the next. <\/p>\n Since President Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017, it had even improved, Vigers said. But all that progress has been wiped out in just 12 months, he noted.<\/p>\n Political chaos and lack of prospects<\/p>\n This loss of confidence comes at a time of significant political instability. Since the surprise dissolution of parliament in June 2024,<\/a> Macron has had one prime minister after another, all faced with the absence of a parliamentary majority. <\/p>\n