Why the French local elections really matter and Macron walks Middle East tightrope

This week, well the news in France has been dominated by the war in the Middle East. We'll explain the ongoing impact that the conflict is having on daily life here and we'll look at how President Emmanuel Macron is handling France's role in the crisis. We'll also focus this week on one of France's most beautiful cities and explore why Americans are moving there in droves. But we'll start this week by bringing you the latest on France's key local elections, look at where the tight races are and what they mean to the French people. Plus stay with us to the end and we'll bring you all the French lingo you need to understand les elections municaples. I'm Ben McPartland your host and I'll be joined as usual by the team at The Local France, Emma Pearson, Emma Albright and politics expert John Lichfield. Bonjour to all our regular listeners, thanks for sticking with us. And a warm bienvenue to any new listeners tuning in. Just in case you weren't aware this podcast is produced by the team at The Local France and is only possible thanks to our paying members, so please join and help us continue to bring you the big talking points from France each week as well as dozens of weekly articles on thelocal.fr Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Why the French local elections really matter and Macron walks Middle East tightrope is an episode from Talking France by The Local France.

This episode is 35:22 long.

This episode was published on Mar 10, 2026.

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