of france? as the country prepares to elect a new president bears record levels of apathy and delusion among french voters, a spate of terror attacks has sown in security and has sparked debate. my guest todayis and has sparked debate. my guest today is a writer and public intellectual in the grand french tradition. is france living through an age of decline? pascal, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. we are talking with a french presidential elections very close, does france feel right for the sort of political shock that we ve seen in recent times both in the uk over the brexit vote and in the united states with the victory of donald trump in the presidential election? i hope not, with all my heart i hope we won t face the same electoral results that you had with brexit and that the americans had with trump. so we re doing everything to avoid the passage to the far right with marine le pen. but at the present time we have two opposite candidates, marcha nt, time we have two op