14.04.2022

In France, the first round of the presidential election was completed on April 10. According to its results, the current head of state Emmanuel Macron won 27.84% of the votes, while his rival, the leader of the right-wing National Unity party Marine Le Pen, got 23.15%.

The candidates face the second round, which will take place on April 24. Read about the positions of the rivals and how the events on the territory of Ukraine affect the life of Paris in the interview of the international editorial office of the Federal News Agency with the author of the Telegram channel PLATONOVA (@dplatonova) and political observer of the International Eurasian Movement Daria Platonova.

Macron's Manipulations

Throughout the Russian special operation, Emmanuel Macron has tried to position himself as a peacemaker and guarantor. Has this given him any advantage in the presidential election?

@dplat -  Indeed, before the special operation, Macron tried in every possible way to portray himself as a peacekeeper and guarantor of security in the region. He telephoned President Vladimir Putin several times and also travelled to Moscow, where he held five-hour talks. No striking results were achieved, but in the first question at the press conference, a French journalist asked Macron about Mali.

This was a symbolic reminder of the ineffectiveness of French foreign policy. Macron then went on to Kiev, where he claimed that it was he who had persuaded the Russian president to keep the peace and Putin would not start military action. In a recent interview with Le Point, he described the meeting from a very different angle:

"Putin knows that I took the time to talk to him, obviously with a demanding and always frank speech”

Constant falsification and flip-flopping of situations and statements is one of Macron's traits. He is often called a "political chameleon" for his ability to reverse his positions and statements at short notice. He and his campaign team actually tried to manipulate the tensions that were rising between Russia and Ukraine, artificially fuelled by globalist forces.

After the start of the Russian special operation, Macron threw off his fake peacemaker mask and joins the "war party", beginning to characterise the EWS as an act of military aggression.

What happens to his rate?

- At the beginning of the special operation it rises to around 32%, according to surveys and has remained at this level for several days. This rise has been temporary, caused to some extent by the French population's fear of events and conflict. Based on the principle of the French proverb Il ne faut pas changer d'attelage au milieu d'un gué.

The French, who are witnesses to all the Western propaganda with no knowledge of the real state of affairs, have a certain amount of fear. The future is unclear, Ukrainian refugees are beginning to arrive in the country, their state is supplying weapons to Kiev and even certain forces, French mercenaries are being sent to help Zelensky defend the Nazi regime. So in a situation of fear and instability Macron has been given a certain advantage.

But fear has been replaced by common sense and people are beginning to realise that the man at the head of France is now actually supporting the Nazi regime. He sends weapons to Kiev and imposes anti-Russian sanctions. The visits to both Kyiv and Odessa of France's "shadow foreign minister", the grey cardinal of French foreign policy, Bernard-Henri Lévy, were indicative. His first visit after the start of the Russian special operation in mid-March was to Odessa. It was there that he met the former commander of the nazi Aydar battalion (banned in Russia), Maxim Marchenko. This is a very important, symbolic moment.

This is a manifestation of Paris' support for the Nazi regime. If Levy is in the region, Macron is naturally aware of this. This visit and the meeting with Levy with terrorists (which, by the way, is traditional for him - in Libya he also met and lobbied in the Elysée Palace for the most egregious radicals and thugs) is an act of Parisian support not just for certain elements of the Kiev regime, but precisely for the most criminal, Nazi formations.

On top of this there is now a massive crisis in France, with rising prices for fuel, gas, diesel and petrol. Fertiliser prices are rising, and for farmers the rate of price rises is a "black scenario". The special operation has given Macron a temporary boost to his ratings but as the real economic problems are being resolved, the French are beginning to wake up and are already changing their minds about the effectiveness of the president's position. In fact, this has been reflected in the ratings. Compared with the end of February, by mid-March the decline starts and eventually it has reached the results that we saw in the first round - 27%.

Macron, after the start of the special operation, condemning Moscow's actions, tried to find his position and role, ultimately choosing the position of the globalists (which he is). In fact, the peacekeeping mission he tried before the special operation was only a mask, a pre-election move. When the real division of the world into supporters of unipolarity (= the Nazi Kiev regime) and multipolarity began, he chose his camp. We saw a fierce globalist, interested in instability, speculating on it, taking an openly Russophobic stance.

Marine Le Pen's tactics

Marine Le Pen said that Paris should not impose sanctions against Russia that would harm France itself. Should we expect any relaxation on the issue of restrictive measures if she wins?

- Marine Le Pen has consistently opposed anti-Russian sanctions since 2014. And she has always said that the sanctions policy is illiterate, it has no impact and only hurts France itself. She has repeatedly criticised the financial elites of the European Union, who do not act in the interests of the people of Europe, but in the interests of the United States. Therefore, for her, a regime of pressure on Russia through sanctions is a suicidal policy. It is, in her view, "tightening the noose around the neck of the French people".

If she wins, surely the first step would be to lift the energy sanctions. In recent interviews she has said that for the time being it is worth starting with them, and then you need to adapt to the agenda and the situation. And it has to be said that her position, now criticising the anti-Russian sanctions, is as widespread as possible among ordinary people, which is one of the reasons why her rating is quite high.

Note that the percentage difference between the candidates has narrowed and if we look at the forecasts for the second round we see that they are virtually neck-and-neck. 49% for Le Pen versus 51% for Macron. Marine Le Pen is against pressure on Moscow; in that sense, she is a follower of European continentalism, sovereignty and a defender of France itself. Some features of her programme are reminiscent of Gaullism, in which the alliance between continental Europe and the Eurasian pole (Russia) is extremely important, I should remind you. This was expressed in the formula "Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals".

Macron and Le Pen made it to the second round with roughly equal proportions of votes. Was it due to the fact that the people of the Fifth Republic, already facing rising prices, welcomed Le Pen's statement condemning sanctions on Russian raw materials?

@dplat  -  Certainly. There is this factor of principle here: sanctions are hitting the French population. The soaring prices of petrol, gas and diesel have paralysed the French. It is worth recalling that protests against petrol price increases have been going on since 2018, and now this process of price increases has accelerated on a cosmic scale.

There is another important reason why in the polls in the second round they have quite close positions. It is about the fatigue of the French people with "macronism". The term describes a neoliberal economic agenda (raising the retirement age, increasing taxation), at the same time a foreign policy failure both in relations with Russia and, for example, the Elysée Palace's loss of influence in Africa.

This is the disgraceful withdrawal of French troops from Mali. Both the army and the public regard this situation as a kind of defeat, a failure to build sound relations. There is the putting of the country under "foreign administration" (the high-profile McKinsey scandal has revealed that a number of draft health laws were drawn up by an American consultancy firm linked to the CIA) and the sale of French companies to the US (the Alstom affair).

So by voting for Marine Le Pen today, people are speaking out against "macronism". Between 2017 and 2022, the president proved himself, and it turns out that there is a void behind his words, and he has failed to keep all his earlier promises.

How have the events in Ukraine affected the overall balance of power in the French presidential election? Previously, big bets had been placed on Eric Zemmour, but he is now only in fourth place.

- The events in Ukraine have certainly shaken up the entire French political map. In particular, Zemmour, a right-wing publicist and bright personality, has actually dropped out of the top three in the first round in this election and is now in fourth place. He insisted that there would be no special operation by the Russian Federation. When it happened they began to reproach him with this position and called him a Russian agent. He tried to explain himself but nobody listened to him.

At the same time, his criticism of NATO appealed to the French. For a man running for the Presidency for the first time, his 7% result (which he beat out the two candidates of the classical French parties, the Republicans and the Socialists) is impressive. I will remind you that in the globalist French media, support for the Russian special operation is almost criminalised. So all the cards are upside down, so strong is the globalist propaganda there.

But all of Zemmour's behaviour during this campaign was very dignified, he changed the whole electoral agenda in general, added an existential dimension to it, reminded of important priority issues - issues of French identity and sovereignty. And very importantly, there are really only two voices in France today - the voice of Macron and all the globalists and others like him who say Russia is "guilty", and the voice of the people represented by Marine Le Pen, represented by Zemmour, represented by Jean-Luc Melanchon.

Melanchon came third in this election. And so this bloc says it's all NATO's fault. This does not mean unconditional support for the special operation, and it does not even mean support for Russia's actions. It shows a sober view of the situation, the North Atlantic Alliance has crossed a red line.

How much does France's position on Ukraine depend on the outcome of the presidential election?

@dplat: If Le Pen comes to power in the second round, France will try to have a sober dialogue, listening to Russia's position rather than ignoring it as it does now. I think the situation may take a positive turn, we will finally be heard. And that's not a small price to pay. If Macron wins, we will not be heard, Moscow will not be heard, Russia will be ignored, and Russophobia will increase.

So Macron is globalism. Macron is an anti-Russian, Russophobic policy. Macron is support for the Kiev, Nazi, criminal regime. Le Pen is a chance to restore Russian-French relations, a chance to start a partnership dialogue.

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