Catherine Field

This investigation was launched back in 2025.

Musk didn't appear, didn't get in touch.

He had some rather choice phrases to describe French authorities just last week.

And the US Justice Department has said they will not assist the French investigation because they say that it is politically motivated charges.

No, no one knew who he was.

He was very much in the background.

He was working at the finance department, the finance ministry.

Before that, he was working for a big commercial bank, investment bank as well.

He wasn't a household name.

He saw the moment when then-President François Hollande was very weak.

He saw that the far right and the centre-right were weak.

There was no one candidate, and he just sort of swooped in there.

So it was very astute politically.

But yeah, we're one year away from voters going to the polls to select a successor to Macron.

Just over the weekend, we saw the centre-right, the traditional conservatives that used to always have, it seemed, the French presidency.

They had a sort of a primary to decide what to do about their candidate, so they had a

primary to decide how the primary would go but all the members of the party decided that the current president of the party would be their candidate for the elections which caused a lot of other centre right figures who you may know to say well we're not having any part of this

Well, Le Pen, of course, she's still waiting to hear whether her conviction for corruption is going to be upheld, whether or not she'll be able to run next year.

If she doesn't, of course, then there's Jordan Bardella, who just in the last couple of hours has been running around talking at the Confederation of Business Industries, trying to look all business-friendly, engaging with business leaders.

He does seem to be the frontrunner, but of course the other frontrunner, even though it's a year away, is Edouard Philippe, who is centre-right.