France for instance has a primary deficit: https://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=325.GFS.A.... I.e. the state budget is in deficit even before the interest on the debt. So it borrows just to repay the interest plus that primary deficit.

These countries are not in default but they are definitely broke and reliant on debt to an insane level.

I agree that almost all countries in the world are in an insane situation, but that's still not a Ponzi scheme. They can repay the debt if they want, they have other sources of income other than loans -- and these are still much larger than these loans they take every year plus interest --, namely their taxpayers pockets.

I agree that this is not good, not fair, and that it should be a crime to get other people's money like that, but it is not a Ponzi scheme.

They cannot repay this debt. France debt to gdp is reaching 100%. They cannot even gather the political steam to stop increasing their debt, and they have a pension wall coming their way, an ageing population, an increasingly illiterate and unemployed youth. This debt will never be repaid.

And like all individuals who keep borrowing more to sustain their life style, and who use the credit card to repay the interest on their loan, it stops when creditors loose trust in them and stop bringing fresh money. And then it collapses. It is an almost identical mechanism than a ponzi scheme.