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That is the sound of the siege of Paris.

Now, calm down, Bismarck. Prussians aren't back.

This time, it's France's own farmers attacking their capital.

Thousands of them, cutting off every access route, every motorway into the city of lights.

They're protesting about Macron, but specifically about what they say are unworkable regulations coming from Brussels, designed to mitigate climate change and that they claim are making their work impossible.

It is the latest manifestation in and of a beleaguered Macron presidency.

But this isn't the only revolt against elites raging throughout Europe right now.

The radical or far right are on the advance in country after country.

Some similarly buoyed and glued together by an opposition to net zero.

Brussels is braced for a European elections in May,

which seem set to deliver a transformed European parliament,

where the integrationists may no longer have the majority.

This could transform the European project.

So on today's show, two separate but related questions.

Is Macron losing control of France?

And is this one of the many canaries in the European coal mine that Brussels is about to lose control of Europe?

It's Lewis here. Welcome to the newsagents. The newsagents. So let's start with Macron. We've covered the trails of his presidency

many times on the newsagents, whether it's open revolt over pensions reform, riots over ethnic tensions,

his presidency as regal as it often seems has been battered. whether it's open revolt over pensions reform, riots over ethnic tensions,

his presidency as regal as it often seems has been battered, month after month.

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