and the bureau needed new leadership. democrats claim it's an attempt to derail the fbi's investigation into allegations of collusion between russia and the trump campaign. two more people have been killed in another day of anti—government protests across venezuela, bringing the number of dead close to a0 in over a month. young protestors in caracas threw bottles at soldiers firing tear gas and water cannon. government supporters held their own demonstration. the bbc has gained exclusive access to foreign fighters in syria, who are trying to get back to europe, as so—called islamic state extremists continue to lose ground. after weeks of fighting, us backed forces are preparing an assault on the group's last major stronghold of raqqa after recapturing the city of tabqa. it's time now for hardtalk. hello, welcome to hardtalk. i'm shaun ley. this sunday, emmanuel macron takes office as president of france.

his political organisation promises to get france's sluggish economy on the move again. but only if, from nowhere, it can win legislative elections next month. sylvie goulard, a liberal mep frustrated by previous presidents‘ broken promises to reform, has thrown her support behind mr macron. even if he gains enough assembly members to get his way, can a president macron deliver and move france forward, when the minister macron he was just months ago could not? sylvie goulard, welcome to hardtalk, joining us from paris today

for this interview. it's an important time for your country, one of the most important of recent years. let me begin with the question of a mandate. does macron see his victory, do you believe, as a mandate to change france? yes, of course he does. he created this movement, and took the risk to leave the government because he is absolutely convinced, and so am i, that our country desperately needs reforms, and has also many assets to be in a better situation, to have more prosperity and more influence in europe, in the world. he won 20 million votes in the second round last sunday, but how much of that was actually a positive vote for him and his vision for france? and how much of it was to simply stop marine le pen? well, in any case, we stopped

marine le pen, which is a piece of very good news. and it is not surprising that with the french electoral system, where you have two terms, in the first one you choose your favourite candidate, and in the second one you eliminate. we are perfectly aware that many people don't share completely his vision of the future. it will be our duty to convince them it is good for france but, in any case, he is the president—elect. i was interested by a survey conducted by ipsos, the polling company for french state television this week, in the wake of the election. 43% of those who voted for macron told pollsters that their main reason was to stop marine le pen. 33% said it was to renew france's political class.

only 16% said it was because they backed his programme, and mandate? if you remember the bible, you don't need too much salt on this earth because if you have too much salt, it's not... i'm joking a little bit. of course we hope that we can convince people but i want to underline that he made a very courageous campaign, campaigning for europe, being pro—business and pro—trade, procompetition, being a french liberal, which is normally something that does not even exist. when i remember how many campaigns in other member states, even during brexit, werejust meant to tell to the people what they are expecting to hear, and not what is a result of a courageous analysis of the state of the world. i must say that i prefer this option. in any case, the fact that we defeated marine le pen is also a major event for europe and the world economy. it is certainly the case that mr macron‘s election broke records.

the highest number registering they support neither candidate. 4 million of them, 11% voting, saying that — and the highest number not to turn up at all. a quarter of those on the electoral register. take those categories out, and 66% of the vote is really only 43% of french adults. for the kinds of reforms and radical changes that he says he wants to make, i wonder how confident he can be that that is anything more than cautious conditional support from the french? i wonder why you are so negative today?! some weeks ago, the world press was afraid of having marine le pen, at the top of france. we know that we have lots more expectations to meet, and lots of frustrations to hear. but once again, one of the nicest things in emmanuel macron‘s campaign was to be, for the first time, to give positive messages to the french people, to tell them that you can make it if you work hard.

we want a society in which people who are unemployed can have a chance, where people with migrant backgrounds in the suburbs can have a future. and even if it is difficult, i really prefer this way of looking at the future than any of the other proposals that were on the table. i appreciate that you think i'm being negative, but i would suggest to you that this is a practical question. as you know far better than i would, the french system gives the president authority when he takes office over foreign affairs and defence this week. but, he needs a majority in the national assembly to get things done on the domestic stage. i wonder, having created a political movement almost overnight, how he is planning to achieve that? it is a very high and very challenging bar? you are perfectly right.

the french constitution foresees on the one hand a very strong president, directly elected, but also a parliamentary system, the prime minister being responsible in the front of the house. of course, the objective of en marche is to get a majority in the election injune — as large as possible. but, to a certain extent, we should not underestimate one thing. the problem of the french political system is not macron. it is the state in which the old parties have left it. in a nutshell, it's not the election of this president that is creating a mess. we had a mess before, we had francois hollande

as a president that was not in a position, even if theoretically he had a majority in the parliament, he was not always in the position to have a majority on some of the very important pieces of legislation. for example, the reform of the labour market. sorry to interrupt, but for our audience to be aware of this, it is one where mr macron‘s reforms had to be shoved through by the president because he could not persuade his own party to back them wholeheartedly? in a sense, it illustrates the kind of challenges the president will face when he is creating a political movement from nothing. even if he wins a majority in june's elections, that will be hard enough, it will be made up of people who have not been bonded in this way over years of working together, who do not share a well—established ideology. so if they could not do it when they did, how will they do it when they don't? no, thanks god, i can tell you, being very often on the ground during the campaigns, the people who will be the candidates of en marche really share a common vision,

which is rare enough in the french tradition to be noticed. this is the first thing. i do not accept that you say that our candidates are not converging on the most important things, on the contrary. the second element is that — to be honest — the old parties are no more in a position to have a united position on many issues. so we take a risk, maybe, but it is worth taking it because the old system is simply dead. so if the old system is dead, presumably you don't want the kind of living dead who currently inhabit the old system? mps from other political parties, from the dying socialist party or the moribund republicans, you are not interested in them. you purely want fresh blood? what we announce, we will try and do what we have announced publicly in february already. that is that we would like to have

half of the assemblee nationale consisting in mps with some experience, coming from the centre—right or the centre—left. .. coming from the old parties who have let down france? yes, but maybe the youngest one... in a system, even if you have dysfunctioning systems, you always have good people trying to do their best. we can keep some of them in order to keep some of the parliamentary experience. you underlined that rightly... manuel valls, the former prime minister of francois hollande who resigned a few months ago, to make his pitch for the presidency of the elysee palace, he says he wants to be one of those bright young things in mr macron's political campaign. is that the sort of person you are looking for? no, we've already said that we will not endorse his candidacy, because let me come back to my point... we had some public criteria

on renewal, and also procedure. en marche created an independent commission, with people looking at the candidates, the applications that we received. we've received more than 14,000 applications for more or less 300 seats. i won't dwell on this too much, because, in a sense, it is unknowable. but you know there are other examples of political insurgencies where parties are proved to be rather like herding cats. one thinks of the five star movement in italy, where the challenge was to get a group of people, many who had never been in politics before, who were the fresh new blood and were keen on what was being said. to actually go through the hard slog of voting for the detail. but that is unknowable and i accept that. but what we do know is that president—elect macron's political manifesto...

he has an agenda. he may or may not get parliamentary majority. does he hope that if he fails to get a parliamentary majority on his own, at the very least, france's other political parties will give him some degree of cooperation in getting his reform agenda through parliament? well, ask george clooney! he would say, what else? once again, we have to be very clear. the country is in a serious situation. we need to boost the economy, we need to fight people who have extremist views. i hope that, even if en marche does not have the absolute majority, which is not at this stage something that we can say, because nobody knows, we hope that we might have one. let's say that we don't. in this case i can imagine that people from the republican can share some of our own proposals — or can support. many countries — germany,

the netherlands, some others — they work with coalitions. even in the uk, if i remember rightly, you had a coalition of the tories and the lib dems. indeed. but again, a coalition created because the electorate declined to give any party a majority. let me ask you about the specific proposals... we are not going to change. if i may, we are democrats. we will respect the results of the vote. and we fight for the absolute majority. of course, if the french people decide not to give us the majority, then we will do our best in a constructive way. but you cannotjust wash your hands and say, if i do not have the majority, i do nothing. very well, so president macron will roll up his sleeves, regardless of what happens in the assembly elections? these are the kinds of things he said he wants. he wants to modernise france. you observe just a couple of years ago that the country is uncompetitive at the moment.

hardly surprisingly you said public expenditure amounts to 55% of gdp. where will the macron axe fall on the public sector, to bring it down to size? well, you are perfectly right. we have to reduce the public sector, and we will do it step—by—step. our goal is to reduce the public spending, to lose three or four points during the five years, because it is not something that you can change in one night. but, the goal is absolutely clear, to reduce public spending and make some economies in some sectors, to save money in some sectors, but also to invest in order to have the possibility, for example, to modernise and have more digital administrations... this is not an easy task... so reducing expenditure will help you to redirect some of the money into more productive things? first of all, yes — and also to have a less of a burden on french society in terms of local authorities and social expenditures...

not targeted... sorry to interrupt, the manifesto that mr macron published his vision had a target of 60 billion euros to be saved. but 10 billion of that assumes unemployment falls from 10% to 7%, saving money on benefits being reduced. 15 billion assumes greater efficiency in the health system, and, goodness me, a british politician would tell you about the dangers of promising efficiency savings in the health system. a further 10 billion is assumed to come from local government. the department making cuts, not the president central administration. when you break it down, it doesn't look quite so radical? no, as i said, it is only something you can do step—by—step. francois fillon was more radical and on the piece of paper it is easy to do it.

the most important thing is to move from the tendency that we have to another one — it will take years, but we are convinced it is good for france. i wonder why you are so understanding about the limitations now, when three years ago, in october 2014, you wrote in the financial times very dismissively of prime minister valls proposals of exactly the same sort? paris, you wrote, "plans to shave £50 billion off public spending, equivalent to 4% of the total, but it's not in any hurry. making the savings would take three years. if there is something exceptional in france, it's the attitude of denial in which all the political parties have la psed." an attitude of denial, i would suggest, of which emmanuel macron, a former minister in president hollande‘s government, is as guilty as the guilty men and women who you have condemned in the old system? wow — is it a court or a broadcast?

you are judging another country with very severe words... i'm judging you on your own words, ms goulard. that's what you wrote three years ago, and suddenly you think, it's fine to take all the time in the world? i agree with you, but in these three years, many things have happened. we had marine le pen in the second turn of the presidential elections, and we have a very high extreme left. i'm absolutely convinced, and everything i've done in the european parliament was in favour of strengthening the budgetary disciplines. on the other hand, you cannot ignore in which country you are and the legacy of what was done, or not done, before. that's the reason why. i think it is very important to bring the message to the french. we've tried to do it during the campaign, and were not complacent at all compared with all of the other candidates who were still fighting

against europe or putting the blame on berlin. we did it. simply, we consider that it is also our duty to tell the truth, and the truth is that if you create big troubles by being too brutal, after years of denial, it isn't the best way to save the country. so we are absolutely convinced that we need to have a balanced approach. you mentioned berlin. mr macron's first international visit as president would be to germany. you were with him the last time that he visited chancellor merkel. what you think will convince her that the candidate she met is a serious reformer as president of france? it is too early to say, and i'm not mrs merkel, to answer the question... but you have a great insight into germany? you've been involved with the german system for many years. you were one of the outsiders when you worked with the french foreign ministry.

you helped to broker reunification. i'm not asking somebody who is an outsider. i'm asking somebody who who probably is one of the best important people in france about german political attitudes. and i don't say that to flatter, i think it is a statement of fact? no, and i'm not saying that i don't want to answer. but the only thing i can do is to speak on my behalf. i don't pretend to represent mrs merkel, i'm not the german ambassador here! the key question is the following one — first of all, are we serious enough? and your questions were fair, we have to be very... how can i say? we have to be aware of how far we have to go internally, and emmanuel macron has never underestimated that there are many decisions to take at a national level. on the other hand, i'm absolutely convinced that it is in the german national interests to keep a good relationship with france. to avoid to be seen, even if it was not intentional as having germanic visions of europe, and of course,

to help to build new policies. if you look at the world as it is, i'm quite sure that in the coming years, security issues, defence, fighting against cyber attacks, fighting against terrorism, border controls around the eu or the schengen area, they will be top of the agenda. of course, we have to convince the germans that we can make the reforms necessary to boost the french economy. this is something true. but we also need to convince them to move in some fields, where we have many — how can i say — lots of responsibility in common for the future and security of this continent. emmanuel macron has called brexit, the british decision to quit the european union, "a crime". crimes, usually, are answered with punishment to discourage others from engaging in similar criminal

and nefarious activity. what punishment does he think would be appropriate, do you think, for britain? as i told you, i speak on my behalf, and i am just underlying the fact that everybody in brussels has seriously taken the british vote. nobody is putting it into question, and nobody wants to punish the british people. that is not at all the way that we look at things. on the other hand, i think a country that insists upon having control on its own interests can understand that other countries also want control on what happens in the eu. so, the negotiation is going to take place. the negotiating team has a mandate, and we will see when the president will be in place, and have a team. we will see how we can negotiate. it is in nobody‘s interests not to have an agreement or see the relationship deteriorat.

—— deteriorate. it will not be in the interests of the uk or in our interests neither. it will be tough negotiations but i hope fair. if i may again stress the security and intelligence aspects, this is one of the reasons, the quality of the relationship our two countries have in this field. it must make us very responsible in negotiating for the rest. last month, you told an interviewer that "certain problems are solved by transferring sovereignty". this is the case with border controls. why then does mr macron want to re—negotiate the le touquet agreement between britain and france? that's a bilateral deal which has nothing to do with the eu, but it allows officers from the british border agency to operate in france, to prevent migrants travelling illegally into the uk? once again, i can only stress one thing. the french border will be, in the future, and external border of the eu in any case.

as well as the french border in front of dover and the channel. once again, we are not going to begin the negotiations today during this broadcast. we don't yet have a president in charge. these are sensitive issues on an ongoing negotiation. the only negotiator is michel barnier. but this is not a bilateral question, the le touquet agreement... of course... you are right. but you cannot completely separate a negotiation with the uk on bilateral issues with the comprehensive negotiation the eu is conducting also on behalf of france. france is in both bodies, and even the uk isn't. we will look at it carefully and when it is about migrants and human lives, it should not be something that we look at without — how can i say — deep thought. i don't want to enter now into a negotiation. it would not be appropriate at all.

finally, let me ask you about yourself, as you probably observe, president macron will only become president on sunday when he formally succeeds francois hollande. have you been asked to serve in his government? the day i can answer this question, i will call the bbc again! if the call comes, would you say yes? i don't want to comment on this issue. it is a prerogative of the president to decide who will be his prime minister, so i respect the french constitution. and you are an mep, will you at least be a candidate for the parliamentary elections? that would be announced before... i am not a candidate. no, i am not a candidate.

sylvie goulard, leaving more questions unanswered, which i hope we will have the opportunity to speak to you about again. hello there. after the dry weather that we have been experiencing for days and weeks now, there is finally a change on the way, courtesy of these lumps of cloud, which have been bringing some quite vicious thunderstorms across spain and portugal, now on the march northwards. so many of us will see some showery rain and perhaps some thunderstorms

over the next couple of days, and with that, a feed of warm, southerly winds, some humid air moving in our direction for the end of the week. so yes, those temperatures climbing. quite a muggy feel to the weather, with the risk of some thunderstorms. in fact, there could be the odd flash of lightning as some showers approach the far south through the first part of thursday morning. so, down towards the south coast, one or two showers to start the day. further north, for the likes of london, east anglia, should be a fine and sunny start. could be one or two thundery showers across the channel islands, into the south—west of england.

but north wales, the west midlands, north—west england, starting the day with some sunshine, and actually a relatively chilly start to the day here. a fine start for northern ireland and much of scotland, but some extra cloud across caithness and sutherland, fringing into parts of aberdeenshire, certainly across the northern isles, where there will be the odd spot of rain. much of northern england seeing fine weather, with some sunshine to start off the day. as we go through the day, there will be a lot of dry weather. some spells of sunshine, but we'll see this very patchy, showery rain moving northwards, and then into the afternoon, the chance we could spark off some really quite vicious downpours and thunderstorms. not everywhere, but if you catch one, well, you will know about it, a lot of rain in a short space. temperatures in the south up as high as 22, maybe 23 degrees. a little bit cooler, still, further north. but, as we go through thursday night into early friday, humid air continues to trundle northwards. some hit—and—miss, showery rain, and it will be a much, much less chilly night than we have had recently. eight to 13 degrees, the minimum temperatures. friday, a bit of a mishmash, really. some spells of sunshine. some of these showers drifting northwards. the potential for the odd

rumble of thunder, flash of lightning, still feeling pretty humid for many. 19 degrees in london, something cooler holding on across the far north of scotland. saturday another fairly humid and showery day, some sunny spells between the downpours. but then, through saturday night, a change. a weather front moves its way in. behind that, some fresher air pushing in from the west. a fresher feel to the weather, with a mix of sunshine and showers. this is bbc news, i'm chris rogers. our top stories: political turmoil in washington. the controversy over the sacking of fbi chiefjames comey goes on, as does the investigation into alleged republican contacts with russia. living with hiv. why those on the latest treatments can expect to live just as long as those without the condition. and another record in the pipeline for real. a second successive champions league victory is nowjust a game away. and i'm tanya beckett. snapjudgement. investors punish the firm behind snapchat.

as the messaging app's results disappoint, its shares plunge 23%. plus: borderline anxiety. businesses in northern ireland fear for the future on britain's post—brexit frontier.