Dhe war has changed how Emmanuel Macron is viewed. “He is the youngest and at the same time the most experienced candidate,” said former right-wing Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Wednesday. “Macron is up to date. I will support him,” announced the head of government from the Chirac era. Former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls (2014-2016) published an appeal on Wednesday entitled: “Why I Vote for Emmanuel Macron”. The international situation had “never been so unstable since 1945” and there was “the risk of a nuclear apocalypse”. Therefore, the decision for Macron is self-explanatory, according to the former head of government. There is simply no time for experiments.
According to a Yougov poll, many French think like the two former heads of government. 72 percent agree with tough sanctions against Russia. 51 percent think that their president has proven himself in the crisis. Before the Russian attack on Ukraine, only 35 percent expressed satisfaction with Macron as diplomatic crisis manager. The war 1,500 kilometers east of Strasbourg shifts the domestic political fronts. In just over a month, the French will vote at the ballot box to decide who will be followed by the nuclear suitcase. Macron wants to officially declare his candidacy this Friday; he wrote a “letter to the French” that was published in regional media on Thursday.
sided with Ukraine
In France, the last remaining nuclear power in the EU, according to the constitution, the president is not only the head of the army. He has an electronic numerical code with which he can activate the nuclear weapons on the strategic submarines anywhere and at any time. Many French people have become aware of this role again after Putin’s threats. Macron has already warned that the war could be long and change the face of Europe. In his second address to the nation since the outbreak of war on Wednesday evening, Ukraine’s blue and yellow national flag once again stood alongside the European and French flags. Macron has clearly and clearly sided with Ukraine, even though he has maintained contact with Putin at the request of President Zelenskyy.
Marine Le Pen, Macron’s most dangerous rival to date, has rushed to cut her party’s umbilical cord to Putin. She had 1.2 million already printed glossy brochures shredded for the election campaign. On eight pages, she introduced herself as the ideal president under the title “Marine Présidente”. A photo of her smiling and shaking hands with the Russian President in the Kremlin was intended to prove her suitability as a statesman. The newspaper “Libération” suspects that this Putin-Le Pen photo is the reason why the expensive campaign brochure is not distributed after all. On Tuesday evening on BFM TV, Le Pen tried to create as much distance as possible from her sponsor Putin: “The Vladimir Putin from five years ago is no longer the one from today.”
The left-wing internet editor Mediapart had revealed that Le Pen’s party had been financed by Moscow over the past few years with a credit line totaling 40 million euros. A nine million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB) caused a stir during the 2017 election campaign. The broadcasting ban on RT and Sputnik doesn’t suit Le Pen, as she has to do without the positive reporting during the election campaign.
“Putin could be French”
“I accuse Madame Le Pen of having succumbed to an unhealthy fascination with the Putin model,” right-wing parliamentary group leader Damien Abad said on Tuesday afternoon in the National Assembly. MP Le Pen did not speak in the parliamentary debate on the Russian war against Ukraine. But on television she said of the sanctions: “The Germans know how to protect their interests. But those responsible in France are incapable of defending French economic interests in Russia.” She sharply criticized Finance and Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire for acting “irresponsibly”. “Our fear is that these sanctions will sanction the French,” she said. In 2014, French farmers suffered from the sanctions.
#Election #campaign #France #war #prefer #President #Macron