The ruling elite in France and internationally fear popular opposition to the decrees, but they consider it a critical step in the destruction of social rights won by workers over generations of struggle in the twentieth century. They hope to impose what the ruling class forced though in Germany with the Social Democrats’ Hartz laws, or the European Union (EU) austerity measures in Greece since the 2008 global crisis. As French capital’s competitiveness collapses and the EU plans a broad militarisation of its foreign policy, the ruling class is heading for a confrontation with the working class.