Episode 5/5 : Farmyard France and the Struggle for Water   Episode 5 heads west to the Marais Poitevin, the second largest wetland in France nicknamed “Green Venice”, 200 kilometres north of Bordeaux, where farmers and environmentalists are at loggerheads over a plan to build 16 large water reserves.    France has always been proud of its countryside. It has the largest rural population and agricultural industry within the European Union. But faced with the onset of global warming, farmers are facing a new battle for water.   With temperatures rising, farmers are stuck with ..read more

Episode 4/5:Islam: the high risk debate   France has no place for religion in public life. It is the law and has been since 1905. This secularism has a special word: Laïcité. It applies across the board to all religions.    But there has been a crystallising of debate around secularism and the practice of Islam, the second religion of France. For some, Islam is not compatible with the secular Republic. For others, the obsession with secularism excludes Muslims. Particular exception is taken to the use of two phrases: ‘Islamophobia’ and "Islamo-leftism".   We travel to the p ..read more

Episode 3/5: Liberty, Equality, Diversity  In this third episode, we are in Paris to look at what it means to be French. What defines Frenchness in a country where a quarter of the population are either immigrants or have immigrant heritage? It is a question that seems to come up in every presidential campaign and   inevitably leads to heated debate and by default much tension and soul-searching.     Immigration is a particular concern of the far-right candidates Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour who talks about ‘assimilation’ rather than ‘integration’ of all immigr ..read more

Episode 2/5 :  “Reinventing Industry”     One of the major themes in the 2022 presidential has been the deindustrialisation of France. The car, metallurgy and textile industries alone have lost half of their workforce in the last 40 years. Less and less is being manufactured on French territory. In this episode, we went to the Decazeville basin (south of France) where the loss of its contract with Renault has seen the Aveyronnaise Metallurgy Company (SAM) going out of business. We talk to some of its former employees who are occupying the factory, such as David Gistau who i ..read more

As France heads into the 2022 presidential election, the fabric of a country that has at times been the envy of Europe is looking tattered. The sands of society are shifting on an almost daily basis, the ‘traditional’ French way of life appears to be on the way out. Things that used to define France appear to have gone: the welfare state is losing steam, industry and agriculture are both suffering. The far-right claims that the country isn’t French enough and has become too multicultural - and that even debating the place of Islam has become a dangerous no-go zone.  France, it seems, is g ..read more

As France heads into the 2022 presidential election, the fabric of a country that has at times been the envy of Europe is looking tattered. The sands of society are shifting on an almost daily basis, the ‘traditional’ French way of life appears to be on the way out. Things that used to define France appear to have gone: the welfare state is losing steam, industry and agriculture are both suffering. The far-right claims that the country isn’t French enough and has become too multicultural - and that even debating the place of Islam has become a dangerous no-go zone. France, it seems, is go ..read more