Perspective

With less than three weeks to go before the first round of voting in France's presidential election, we check in on the latest twists and turns of the campaign trail with Andrew Smith, a professor of contemporary French history at the University of Chichester. He unpicks far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s pledge to reduce France's retirement age to 60 (down from the current 62). Our guest also takes a look at the reasons behind President Emmanuel Macron's manifesto focus on bolstering French self-sufficiency across everything from energy to agriculture.

It's been exactly six decades since the ink was signed on the Évian Accords, an agreement aimed at ending an almost eight-year conflict that claimed the lives of more than 300,000 Algerians. But France is still struggling to come to terms with its colonial and wartime legacy in Algeria. We're joined for Perspective by historian Jim House, lecturer and head of research for French at the University of Leeds in the UK.

In the three weeks since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, more than 3 million people have been forced to flee their homes to seek refuge abroad. To discuss parallels with previous conflicts, we speak to writer and anthropologist Maggie Paxson.

Key suspect Salah Abdeslam has claimed that he bears no responsibility for the 130 people who were killed in the Paris terror attacks of November 2015. His testimony, during a terse exchange with magistrates, drew anger from survivors and their families, who've also been criticising the decision by defence lawyers to stage a walkout during Tuesday’s hearing. To discuss this and more, we're joined for Perspective by Arthur Dénouveaux, a survivor of the attack on the Bataclan and president of the Life for Paris association.

A stark warning from the United Nations, which says the conflict in Ukraine could lead to a global food shortage - due to rising prices and an inability to plant crops. Both Russia and Ukraine export large amounts of grain to Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, further sanctions have been announced against Russia, while hundreds of international firms have suspended their operations in the country. Sergei Guriev, professor of economics at Sciences Po in Paris, joins us to discuss this.

With less than four weeks to go ahead of the first round of voting in the French presidential election, we check in on the campaign with contemporary history and politics lecturer Andrew Smith. He explains that Emmanuel Macron's choice not to participate in a debate ahead of the first round is right in line with his strategy to stay above the fray. Meanwhile, right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse and far-right Eric Zemmour face off in a televised debate hoping to revive their flagging campaigns.

The White House is warning that Russia could be planning a chemical or biological weapon attack in Ukraine. Washington says it's "very concerned" about the potential for the war to escalate and the possibility that Moscow may deploy non-conventional weapons. To discuss this and more, we're joined for Perspective by Edward Arnold, a research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London.

To justify Russia's war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has described the Ukrainian government as Nazis. Not only is the claim totally unfounded, but President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish and some of his relatives were murdered by the Nazis. Though experts have almost unanimously dismissed the Kremlin's claim, there are real concerns that the war could strengthen neo-Nazi groups both in Russia and Ukraine. Adrien Nonjon, an expert on Ukraine and the far right, joined us for Perspective to tell us more.

Republican universalism is one of the founding principles of the French Republic. Put simply, it's the notion that the collective transcends individual differences like ethnicity or religion. But many see that definition as increasingly exclusionary, even arguing that the concept contributes to the very societal ills it's supposed to prevent. Mame-Fatou Niang, Associate Professor of Francophone Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, has co-authored an essay on the topic. She joined us for Perspective.

The war in Ukraine may be keeping Emmanuel Macron off the campaign trail, but the benefit to the French president has been clear: for the first time, a poll over the weekend saw him getting more than 30 percent of votes in the first round. The conflict has given Macron an opportunity to demonstrate his leadership. Meanwhile, candidates from far-right Marine Le Pen to far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon have been stuck defending their past sympathies for Vladimir Putin and their calls to withdraw France from NATO. Andrew Smith, a senior lecturer in contemporary history and politics at the University of Chichester, tells us "it’s going to be a strange campaign".