The end of the early shift, and workers at the Peugeot car factory at Aulnay-sous-Bois, near Paris, are streaming out through the turnstiles. The anger is raw; the disappointment crushing. In July, when the company announced that the plant, which employs 3,000 workers, was to close, President Francois Hollande loudly branded the decision "unacceptable". Two months and an official report later, his government has now accepted its fate. "Hollande said that he would look after us," says Samir Lasri, who has worked on the production line for 12 years: "Now we regret voting for him."
    The decision by Peugeot-PSA, a loss-making carmaker, to shut its factory at Aulnay, the first closure of a French car plant for 20 years, and to shed 8,000 jobs across the country has rocked France. It has become an emblem both of the country's competitiveness problem and of the new Socialist government's relative powerlessness, despite its promises, to stop private-sector restructuring. Tough as it is for the workers concerned, the planned closure may have had at least one beneficial effect: to jolt the country into recognising that France is losing competitiveness and that the government needs to do something about it.
    This autumn, however, as factory closures mount, a creeping sense of reality seems to be setting in. Mr. Hollande may still be bent on his new 75% top tax rate, yet on other matters the tone has changed. Not only has the Aulnay closure been accepted, but Mr. Hollande has talked of "painful" efforts ahead. He warned about 10 billion ($13 billion) of spending cuts, as well as 20 billion of tax increases. Above all, he called for a "reform of the labour market"—traditionally a taboo for the left.
    Yet it is one thing to recognise a problem, and quite another to do something about it. Much will depend on the attitude of union leaders, who do not enjoy a reputation for co-operation and compromise. But in the end, it will come down to Mr. Hollande's resolve. He promises to pass a labour-reform law anyway, even if no deal is reached. His Socialist Party controls power at all levels across France; he is at the start of a five-year term; and his popularity is already dropping fast. If he cannot do what is needed this autumn, it is unlikely that he ever will.  From the first two paragraphs, we learn that ______.