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France was a major power in world affairs with a long history and influential culture. It had over 65.03 million inhabitants just before the outbreak. Like the United States, France had a proficient military and a thriving scientific community, including the presence of la Biomedicine DDMI. The governement system was a democracy under the 5th Republic established on October 4, 1958 by Charles de Gaulle.
Since 1790, France has been organized into "départements" and "régions", areas created to facilitate the organization of the country. A départment is an administrative division covering just under 6,000 km² where a number assigned to it. On its territory lies a prefecture, acting as an administrative center. These are part of a whole called a région, with a surface area exceeding tens of thousands of km² (e.g. Maine-et-Loire is part of Pays de la Loire).
Post-Apocalypse[]
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It was the French. [...] They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end.
Given that la Biomédicine DDMI was implied to have created the Wildfire virus, it's likely that France was the origin for the outbreak that resulted in the near extinction of the human race. Edwin Jenner mentioned that France was the closest to finding a cure to the virus. Unlike the American Centers for Disease Control, where scientists left to save their families, themselves or committing suicide, French researchers and scientists were unwilling to leave their posts and were among the last operating research team in contact with the CDC. However, Jenner never heard from them again after communications went down, as the outbreak continued to worsen. He ascertained that the French power grid had failed, and that the scientists were unable to develop a cure.
A state of emergency was declared in the early hours of August 26 by the President of France, which prohibited public gatherings, looting and other actions that could've provoked public disorders. Comparing to the United States, the cities registered a progressive increase of fatalities, and the countryside was largely unaffected. At some point, the situation deteriorated and the virus likely escaped limited containment.
Following this, it is assumed that the government enacted a plan oriented to provide continuity of government, therefore evacuated to the Strategic Operations Air Base in Taverny, a town which is 12 kilometers from Paris, and then moved to Mount Verdun Air Base, which had an underground crisis command center.
Factors such as widespread unrest, acts of unobservation of governmental instructions transmitted via radio which composed the state of emergency and economic failure contributed to the alleged dissolution of the French government, although it is unknown if a precise contingent plan was activated or if the government still operates albeit isolated and severely limited. Following the collapse of society, many young Frenchmen became affiliated with militant paramilitary groups known as Guerriers, or "Warriors". Power of the Living became a rising force by 2023, and had control of about half of Paris. People looked to groups like the Power of the Living for offering "order".
There is violent conflict in France regarding the origins of - and experimentation on - the undead. Although the Power of the Living also engages in research on the Wildfire virus, there are vigilantes dedicated to hunting down those responsible for the outbreak, namely the members la Biomédicine DDMI. Ex-researchers from this lab were forced to go into hiding to avoid jail or death. Some of these ex-DDMI teams are implied to be hunted across Europe and the world.
Ten years later, the nationalist political movement Power of the Living has reclaimed, if not entirely, a great part of the national territory, leading Genet to proclaim the 6th French Republic with herself as de facto provisional president. It is however unknown if other institutions were re-established, such as a parliament or judiciary. The new political structure and administration can be described as an unitary autocracy, where Marion Genet exercises almost all control.
According to Laurent Carriere, he thinks that less than 200,000 people survived after the outbreak. He also tells to Daryl Dixon that it will take six or seven generations to repopulate the whole country.