Privatisation seems to have slipped off the French government’s economic agenda – for the time being at least. If anything, Paris is going in the other direction with the imminent partial nationalisation of the Suez energy conglomerate when it finally merges with state-controlled Gaz de France.

Across the Rhine in Germany, by contrast, privatisation still seems to be the order of the day. The partners in Angela Merkel’s grand coalition recently reached a compromise after years of intense political haggling to get the Deutsche Bahn’s privatisation back on the rails. Ms Merkel would have liked to place around half of the state railways in private hands but ultimately agreed to sell only a quarter.