Episode description

In just over six weeks, voters in France will go to the polls in the first round of the 2022 presidential election, in which President Emmanuel Macron’s toughest competition for re-election comes from the right. This week, the New Statesman’s Europe correspondent, Ido Vock, examines the state of the French right wing.

He, along with special guests Agnès Poirier, a journalist and the author of Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, and Catherine Fieschi, the director of Counterpoint, looks at the likely battle for second place between the Republican candidate Valérie Pécresse and her rivals on the far right, Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour.

Is Macron’s domination of the political centre forcing his rivals to take more extreme positions?

Podcast listeners can get a special discount on subscriptions to the New Statesman. Visit www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer to subscribe for just £1 a week.

Further Reading

Hoping to stave off war in Ukraine, Macron goes to Moscow

Éric Zemmour and the French far right’s gender gap

Emmanuel Macron doesn’t plan to let the right monopolise anti-immigration sentiment

Could Valérie Pécresse be France’s first female president?

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