Does France realise the ‘imminent danger’ it is in?

Host Ben McPartland is joined by The Local France’s Emma Pearson, Genevieve Mansfield and John Lichfield to discuss everything that is happening in France – and catch up on the summer’s news – in the first episode of the new series. 

After a brief chat about the team’s summer holidays – swimming in the Seine for Emma, escaping the heat in the Alps for Ben and hiking in the Morvan for Gen – it’s straight into France’s latest political crisis.

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Can François Bayrou survive the bombshell confidence vote that he himself called? What happens next if France loses yet another government? Will Emmanuel Macron survive? And who are the mysterious online collective threatening to ‘blockade France’ in September?

The other big news of the summer concerns French citizenship for foreigners – Genevieve explains the painstaking work the team has done to expose the changes, and how they are affecting foreigners living in France.

We also take a look back over the summer of exceptional heat and raging wildfires, and we explain why 2025 will likely not be a good vintage for French wines.

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