Editorial. The Ukrainian flag in the background, attached to the tricolor banner and that of the European Union, planted the decor, Wednesday, March 2, of the speech of the President of the Republic. France lives at the time of the war that Russia leads to Ukraine, the entire Europe is transformed, and the head of state devotes most of his time.
Solennel but sober, Emmanuel Macron put the words on this Russian aggression in the heart of Europe, against a country whose only fault is to want to be free and choose his destiny. “President Putin chose the war,” he accused. He did it “alone”, fed by a “revisionist reading of the history of Europe” and “a spirit of revenge”.
If he has clearly denounced the “lies” of the Kremlin Head, Mr. Macron did not come back to his own policy with regard to Vladimir Putin, one of the foreign policies of his five-year. . Nor did he mention the vain efforts made in recent weeks, including by going to Moscow, to try to convince the Russian President to give up the war. If these diplomatic efforts, justified, were carried out in perfect consultation with the partners of France, he went differently from the first Russian initiatives of Mr. Macron, which we see today that they were dedicated to failure, in the face of A Russian leader locked in his resentment.
This strategy will be part of the inventory. For the moment, Emmanuel Macron intends to keep in touch with Mr. Putin, and assumes, “to look tirelessly to convince him to give up arms”. It has occurred to distinguish Mr. Putin from the Russians, with whom he said, “France is not at war”.
The unit against aggression
The President of the Republic also wanted to prepare the French with the consequences of the war and massive European sanctions taken against Russia on their daily lives and the economy. Returning there to one of his favorite roles, that of protector of the nation, he let a new “whatever it costs”, after that of the pandemic of Covid-19, to help affected companies.
Finally, Mr. Macron addressed the impact of this war, “signal from a change of time”, on the future of Europe. It is located in familiar ground, and sees in this conflict the validation of the theses which it promotes tirelessly since its campaign of 2017: European sovereignty, the affirmation of Europe-Power and the strengthening of its defense capabilities . With the alignment of Germany on these objectives, thanks to the tilt announced Sunday by the Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the President of the Republic announced that the European Summit on March 10th and 11th would be devoted to these issues.
It would almost forget that a presidential election takes place in five weeks and that the president who was expressing Wednesday evening in front of the voters’ viewers had only two days to formalize his candidacy. Mr. Macron has only referred that at the end of his speech, advocating unity in the aggression of Russia: it was not the purpose of his intervention, and he was right. not mix the two subjects. But it is clear, especially in the eyes of the other candidates, that this president whose five-yearly seems to have been a succession of crises, “yellow vests” to the pandemic and now to war at the gates of the EU , pulle in it the springs of a lightning campaign.