French President Emmanuel Macron observes a brief interlude in the war in Ukraine while he makes his first candidate trip on Monday. The same day, the Constitutional Council announced that they will be twelve on the starting line on April 10.
The candidate president will not go very far: he is expected at the end of the followingnoon in the Paris region, in Poissy, for “a conversation with the inhabitants”. His first trip since the formalization of his presidential candidacy last Thursday.
He was also due to receive local elected officials and supporters at his campaign headquarters in Paris on Monday, 34 days before the presidential election. Emmanuel Macron, who is well ahead of the voting intentions of the first round and given a winner in the second round, according to the polls, is caught up in the war in Ukraine.
Interview with Putin
He spoke once more on Sunday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, demanding from Moscow that “as long as the offensive is underway”, it must “respect international humanitarian law, the protection of civilian populations and the delivery of help”, according to the Elysée.
The president has warned that he will not be able to campaign as he would have “desired”. But according to the boss of LREM Stanislas Guerini, he will take advantage of “all the interstices” of the international agenda “to meet the French”, a bit like the “great debate” he had launched at most fortified by the crisis of “yellow vests”.
It’s because the war in Ukraine is weighing on the presidential campaign. “Ukraine strikes the spirits, tumbles in this political landscape, all this causes an increased interest for the presidential campaign”, notes the pollster Brice Teinturier on LCI, stressing however that this “interest” does not relate to the proposals of the candidates.
Twelve suitors
The opponents of the outgoing president are forced to position themselves, not without contortions.
Faced with strong criticism for his pro-Russian positions, the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in a meeting on Sunday in Lyon, said “stop the war, stop the invasion of Ukraine”, and pleaded for a France “non-aligned” which “does not accept a world order in which there would be NATO on one side and a Russian” and Chinese bloc on the other.
This earned him the wrath of the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot who attacked on Monday the “indulgence” of Mr. Mélenchon and his “capitulation” vis-à-vis Vladimir Poutine, accusing him of “grandiloquence speeches” aimed at concealing its positions.
Socialist Anne Hidalgo and Mr. Jadot, who also called on Emmanuel Macron to “impose Russia’s withdrawal on Total”, also criticize Mr. Mélenchon’s opposition to the delivery of arms to the Ukrainians.
The candidate of the Insoumis is at the head of the voting intentions on the left. Eric Zemmour, who received support on Sunday from Marion Maréchal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, is also taken to task for his pro-Russian tropism.
This weekend, he was put in difficulty following the revelation by Le Monde and the JDD of links with the ex-president of the Russian Railways Company Vladimir Yakunin. His remarks on the reception of Ukrainian refugees in Poland rather than in France also caused a stir, including within his entourage.
In total, as in 2017, the candidates will be twelve on the starting line for the first round on April 10, the Constitutional Council having validated the sponsorship of the far-left candidate Philippe Poutou.
In the starting blocks, according to the official order announced on Monday and established by lot: Nathalie Arthaud (LO), Fabien Roussel (PCF), Emmanuel Macron (LREM), Jean Lassalle (Resist!), Marine Le Pen (RN ), Eric Zemmour (Reconquest!), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), Anne Hidalgo (PS), Yannick Jadot (ecologist), Valérie Pécresse (LR), Philippe Poutou (NPA) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (DLF).
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
