Republican congressman how Donald Trumps doing so far. Here in the uk, we have exclusive access to a report on addiction to prescription drugs. We speak to those with first hand experience of a hidden epidemic. My doctor then just upped and dose and upped the dose. Thats when it all went slightly wrong. Well, actually thats the understatement of the year. It didnt go slightly wrong, it went horribly wrong. Hello from paris. Our picture post card perfect spot. Its getting noisy here. The build up to the may president ial election is in full swing. Two president ial campaigns were launched this weekend in the city of lyon the macron and le pen sides had rallies there. More on that shortly. A Third Campaign of Francois Fillon struggled to keep itself alive today. He was the favourite at one point but is ensnared in an expenses like drama. The revelations about his family being on his payroll and the implosion of his campaign is quite something to behold. Its dominated the last few days. Everybody is talking about it, and the man himself came out to make a grand Statement Today not a withdrawal from the race, but an apology and explanation of sorts. Translation things that were acceptable in the past are no longer acceptable today. I put a premium on trust and decided to work with my wife and children. That has earned me disapproval. It was a mistake. I regret it profoundly and i apologise to the french people. Like many other parliamentarians i behaved in a manner that was legal but which is clearly no longer supported by our compatriots. Now, that statement was important, because he remains in the campaign, but badly wounded, which is good for the other two leading candidates. The battle to watch is between Marine Le Pen and emmanuel macron. It is so fascinating, because it represents the schism that defines our time. Not the old hat 20th century struggle between left and right liberalism versus whats usually called populism. It was the battle that donald trump won in the us. But in europe, there has not yet been a similar, clean cut clear fight between those two sides. In britain, brexit might have been a proxy war. But our two party system is still trying to hang on to the geography of left and right. France, though, has a more fluid party system, and its election may well end up as a kind of trump clinton grudge match the chance for liberals to get even. And as i say, it really got going this weekend, not here in paris, but in frances second city, lyon. Politics descended upon lyon this weekend. Its away from the paris elite, a sizeable city, towards the Geographic Centre of the country, and its politically open minded. What better place to launch a president ial Election Campaign . The striking geographical feature of lyon is that its where two huge rivers, the rhone and the saone, meet to become one, just over there rather like the french electoral system, which through its stages, ends up as a giant showdown between two candidates. Now, if Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes the two candidates launching their campaigns here will be meeting in that showdown. And what is so striking is that neither of them can be said to be part of the traditional right or left. Yes, whats missing in lyon are the old parties. The low reputation of Francois Hollande has met the socialists are in a mess. Hollande did not bother to stand, and his mate manuel valls didnt make it past the primaries. The party has a left wing candidate, benoit hamon, running fourth in the polls. The old right, now called the republicans, picked Francois Fillon, but this was a bad election to be drowning in allegations of family profiteering, given that voters everywhere are expressing anger at self serving elites. Which is why the polls say these two are the ones thatll make it to the second round, outside the big left right party structure, both coming to the same city on the same weekend. Emmanuel macron came from the left, but is defining himself as the new centre, which is i suppose a bit like the old blairite centre pro eu, social and economic liberalism. Supporting him here, the socialist mayors of lyon, gerard collomb. In his favour, in contrast to hillary clinton, macron is a relative newcomer, and is pitching himself not as the establishment but as change. He has an unusual personal life. His wife is 20 years older than him, and was his french teacher at school. Tolerance is one of his messages. The next day, across town, the Front National rally. Here, anger is encouraged. Marine le pen is leading in the polls, but with the baggage of her partys past, shell struggle to win a two way showdown. Without that baggage, her message would probably be doing very well. A lot of people hate the word populism, but we surely need a word to describe the mix of policies being outlined here. Tough on law and order, anti immigration, and yet a detestation of globalisation and liberal economics. People like the idea of a strong state, an etat fort. Now, its interesting that one of the appeals of Marine Le Pen is that shes strong, uncompromising, no namby pambyism. But of course, she has made compromises to soften her image and appeal to more mainstream voters. Her message has now been honed to fit a global populist mantra anti elite and pro blue collar jobs. Her overall vision is for a protective state, but with a very clear idea of who is in that state ukip . Sebastien chenu, a gay activist, used to be an apparatchik so, macron versus marie. Here in lyon, in early february, the contest began, the ground set a battle that is probably nothing other than the one to define im bigging up this contest because it is big, and for the eu, fundamental. If she wins, she would try to reshape the eu completely. A victory for her would also be significant, one assumes, for muslims in france. If he wins, it would give that much persecuted minority, the liberal elite, a proper leader a global beacon of success. I was talking to a former british centrist Cabinet Minister recently, e ieeul11ee1ese4131ell 9 le 1ee1 95; egg . Err 75. 43; let us digest this start to an important election with two veteran commentators. Christine okrent is a political analyst, broadcaster and writer. And pierre haski is a co founder of an opinion and debate platform on the web, called rue 89. Quatre vingts neuf. Good evening to you both. Thank you forjoining us. Im pitching it as populism versus liberalism. Is that how we should look at this election . Sure, of course. Populism, you know, its all over our western world. Populism can be on the left or on the right