Hello, my name is David Runseman and this is Talking Politics.

An extra edition this week to follow up on the conversation that we had about Macron

and France. We recorded a discussion between two of the leading British historians of France,

Robert Tooms, who's appeared regularly on this podcast and tells us what's going to happen

in France. And John Kieger, who's an expert on French foreign policy and is working

on a big new research project looking at relationships between French and British diplomacy.

And they are going to talk about, among other things, what Brexit means to the French and

for the French at a time when the film Dunkirk is getting a lot of play over the channel as

well as here. And taking a broader historical view of Macron and what he means for the

French state. The first voice you're going to hear is John Kieger. And John and Robert

started by trying to frame Macron's presidency 100 days in against the long story of how

France has been ruled.

Well, he's kind of portrayed himself as more monarchist, more in touch with France's

pre-Republican days. And he thinks that the French really want to connect with that.

And in many ways, he's right. But he's certainly decided that he's going to run the whole

of French state and to a certain extent, the French economy from the apex. And what he's

attempted to do is to use symbols to use his power as president of the Republic in a way

that wasn't used by his predecessor, Orlando, or even by his predecessor, Sarkozy. And therefore,

he's decided that he's going to replace the upper echelons of the civil service with appointments

that will be people who have his view of things. He's decided that the party will be largely

on message, his new party. He's decided that ministers won't be able to speak to the press

without his say so. He's decided that people in Parliament will vote in the way that he expects

...