French Voters Are Kind of Angry. They’re Also Optimistic.

Since the recession that began in 2009, France has more than recovered its lost output. It’s made more progress than Italy and Spain—but less than Germany and the U.K.

Unemployment is way too high too, especially for youth. But some other European countries are worse.

France leads in one area: Its people bear the highest tax burden in Europe—even higher than the Swedes and the Danes.

Some of these unpleasant facts turn up in French people’s views of the future. They are more pessimistic than any other Europeans about whether their country is on the right track.

And they have a lower opinion of the EU’s leadership than the British—who just voted to leave the bloc.

But there’s where it starts to get complicated: The French by and large don’t hate the EU, or want to leave it. Only 22 percent favor that option.

And while Le Pen’s National Front has used language fueling suspicion about France’s Muslim population, the nation as a whole views Muslims less negatively than many of its neighbors.

Its population is also supported by one of the most generous social security systems in the world, with 31 percent of gross domestic product spent on public medical care, unemployment insurance and other benefits.

As Ipsos’s Bardon says, the French are content with their own personal situation, even more so than many of their also-cheerful European neighbors.