How did the French economy perform from 1995 to 2007?

How should one judge the structural performance of the French economy under Jacques Chirac’s presidency , from 1995 to 2007 ? We compare France with Germany and with the euro zone as a whole excluding France with regard to : The innovation, corporate modernisation and investment effort as well as productivity; The employment rate and structural unemployment; The performance of the education system and youth employability; Competitiveness, market shares and foreign trade; The situation of industry and the capacity to withstand competition from emerging countries; The tax burden and public finances; Inequality and poverty. We find that France deteriorated across all these criteria relative to Germany and the euro zone excluding France (in some cases strongly: education, youth employability, foreign trade) with the exception of inequality and poverty, where France improved.