Hello, welcome to the Owen Jones podcast. Now, I've just come back from France where I've

been covering the French presidential election, which is now between the centre-right Emmanuel

Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen. The left-wing candidate Melanchion very narrowly did not

make it into the second round to the consternation of his supporters. So now it's a very, very

grim choice for the left because obviously many of them are desperate to stop the far-right and

yet they've lived under the right-wing economic qualities of Macron and often suffered police

brutality under his administration. Now, I've got a documentary coming out. I've spoken to

Melanchion campaign people to Le Pen supporters out in northern France to Macron supporters.

And I spoke to Edward Louis, who's a fascinating young working class on his background at least

intellectual, about the situation, about the terrible situation facing the left and the second

presidential election. Edward Louis, as you'll hear, is very clear that Le Pen does have to vote for

Emmanuel Macron, as nauseating as many of them think that to be. But I wanted to talk to him about

the general political situation. It's a really fascinating interview. Honestly, I can't recommend

this enough. We speak to him in the documentary, but I wanted to include the full interview because

he's just so fascinating. So please do listen and watch out for the full documentary because

it really is, I think, because of my brilliant videographer, a brilliant job, not because of my efforts,

but because of the material we've got. Do listen, leave a review, as ever, and spread the word.

And do you support us on Patreon.com for us at 0864? Here's the interview.

So, Melanchion came so close. What do you make of the significance of his result? Because actually

he started way behind what he actually ended up on, but he's not the second round. No,

no, but the thing is that Melanchion and the left created an incredibly powerful dynamic

around them. And I think that suddenly so many people represented, again, by the left.

...