Le Divide - Liberte

Available for over a year

France's motto of "liberte, egalite, fraternite" - liberty, equality and fraternity - is also the battleground for its most divisive issues. The BBC's Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson travels around the country to examine the key challenges facing the country, and ask whether President Macron's policies are helping to heal divisions, or make them worse? Since the beginning of his campaign, President Macron has talked about France's unique role as a beacon of liberty and human rights. Protecting those rights in a changing world is at the heart of his fierce commitment to a stronger, closer Europe. But the far-right nationalist party of Marine Le Pen is promising the French a different kind of freedom: protection from Europe itself - its open borders and open markets. So how far will Macron go to stop her support from spreading? And what concessions is he making in pursuit of Liberté? Producer: Arlene Gregorius