Marcus Ashworth

They want more budget freebies.

And they want to roll back pension reform.

Those are the things that I think really could derail the French story even further, because then you get back into the old France, the pre-Macron France, but with a lot more debt and a lot worse budget deficit, which I think spooks European partners a bit more.

Totally, totally.

And that's completely logical.

Macron himself betrayed his predecessor, François Hollande, his father figure.

This is the rule of French politics.

I think what's slightly new, I guess, is that Edouard Philippe, in calling for a new presidential election, is really willing to...

get out there and say, let's make history again.

It's a kind of daunting proposition.

I think he's now concerned that Marine Le Pen is the politician to be even in a presidential election.

Edouard Philippe had been groomed as the kind of potential heir of Macron.

I think polls are quite alarming in the sense that they're showing whether it's Le Pen or her number two, Bardella.

they're really comfortably in the lead for a presidential election.

So you can see there's a lot more panic.

There's a lot more febrility.

People are willing to push the boat out a little more in terms of radical proposals.

And I think a Macron resignation would be a huge bombshell and I think definitely push the spread to levels that Marcus was flagging.

Well, I think Liz Truss and Brexit are kind of useful barometers of what happens when a country sort of tests its reputation and long-held perceptions from the market.

Basically, I think, as Marx has said, the ECB is there, the euro is there, OK?