Ukraine remained at the center of the electoral campaign for the presidential election on Saturday March 5, with demonstrations once morest the war led by Russia in which the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot and the socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo.
Like the other declared candidates at the Elysée, both criticized the now candidate Emmanuel Macron. Yannick Jadot was the most incisive in denouncing a “unacceptable complicity” of the French giant TotalEnergies with Moscow and castigating the fact that the company “remains the last oil and gas multinational present in Russia” following the invasion of Ukraine.
“If I were in Emmanuel Macron’s place, I would impose on Total the end of its complicity with Vladimir Putin and what is happening in Ukraine. I would force Total to leave Russia”, he told CNews. TotalEnergies, which generates 3 to 5% of its total revenue in Russia, said it would not bring “more capital for new projects” in the country, without however mentioning a withdrawal or suspension of activity, like its competitor BP.
“There are pandemic profiteers, there are war profiteers”
At a meeting in Le Havre, the communist candidate Fabien Roussel attacked “these French multinationals, listed on the CAC 40, Total, BNP, LVMH and so many others, which might still enrich themselves in 2022 during this war as they did during the pandemic”. “It is out of the question that we accept to see our bills soar today at the same time as their profits and their dividends. There are pandemic profiteers, there are war profiteers”he launched.
Anne Hidalgo, on the European and executive line on this file, advocates economic aid to Kiev and sanctions once morest Moscow. Must also “a mobilization of the international community and public opinion” and “deliver weapons, especially to Ukraine, so that the Ukrainians can fight”she recalled on BFM-TV.
“I am in opposition to President Macron”said for her part the candidate of the Republicans, Valérie Pécresse, during a public meeting in Metz, Saturday evening, “but today I support the very firm sanctions that France and Europe have taken once morest Mr. Putin, once morest the oligarchs, once morest Russian interests”.
The general delegate of La République en Marche, Stanislas Guérini, for his part called on LCI to participate in the demonstration in Paris to “show our total solidarity with the Ukrainian people”adding that France would continue to welcome refugees and “deliver arms” to Ukraine.
Marine Le Pen criticizes “Emmanuel Macron’s temptation to escape” from the campaign
Questioned during a trip to Grau-du-Roi (Gard), Marine Le Pen for her part reiterated her opposition to the delivery of weapons because “it’s adding weapons to the war”. “It is on diplomacy that we must bet everything” and “think regarding sanctions but which I say should not result in the economic collapse of our own country”she said without further ado.
On a more political level, the candidate of the National Rally judged “shocking” the “mixture of genres between the President of the Republic and the candidate” following the broadcast on Friday of a campaign video by Emmanuel Macron shot in his office at the Elysée.
Later, in a meeting in Aigues-Mortes, Marine Le Pen felt that everything was “made to lull public opinion”. The situation in Ukraine, “however serious it may be, which makes the President of the Republic an important diplomatic actor, in no way justifies Emmanuel Macron’s temptation to escape the demands of an electoral campaign and the demands of democracy: that of reporting of its balance sheet, that of accepting the debate of ideas”she shouted.
