Hello and welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Lara Prendergast and on this week's episode,

we'll be discussing whether Marine Le Pen could become France's next president. We'll also be asking

why the middle classes let posh people get away with so much. And finally, we'll be talking about why

men aren't lunging at women in Uber's

anymore. Until recently, it looked as if Francoise Fulon might be the next president of France.

That was, until a scandal involving payments to his family, reared its head. So, can anyone

now stop Le Pen? I'm now joined by Professor Robert Toomes, an historian of France, who

from Cambridge, and Amundine Alexandre, a French journalist based in the UK.

So, Robert, could you explain briefly to listeners what's going on at the moment?

Well, I think this is the most uncertain, and in a way the most scary French election since the 1950s.

Very few people feel confident in predicting the outcome, even though the opinion polls seem to suggest a particular outcome, because so many unexpected things have happened, so many of the leading candidates have disappeared in one way or another, or look as though they might disappear.

So it seems as though the outcome is rather dependent on circumstance, on accident. Will there be another scandal?

Could there be another terrorist attack?

Would all this play into the hands of Marine Le Pen?

And that's why I think many people, including French friends of mine,

are really feeling extremely pessimistic about the outcome.

And I think there are reasons to worry.

And who are the key players right now?

Well, the key players are, of course, Marine Le Pen, whose leader of the Front Nacional, which is

probably the largest party now. Francois Fillon, former Prime Minister, a right-wing candidate who was

expected to beat her, except as you pointed out, he's now engulfed in a

rather demeaning scandal about payments to his wife. And a new, the new kid on the block,

...