The electoral confrontation is as if suspended, only forty-one days before the first round.
Surprising image, Monday, of the main candidates for the presidential election gathered at Matignon, attentive to the information that the Prime Minister was kind enough to deliver on the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.
Only the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon (who is finishing a trip to Reunion), Jean Lassalle and Nathalie Arthaud were absent, while the low number of sponsorships collected by Christiane Taubira deprived her of an invitation.
“Many very specific questions have been asked, all the answers have been provided
,” noted government spokesman Gabriel Attal, a way of embodying a power overhanging his
rivals.
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This did not prevent Éric Zemmour from praising
“very useful, very interesting information”
and paying
“homage to the Prime Minister”
.
While demanding
"a security plan in Europe"
.
The Republican candidate, Valérie Pécresse, asked the executive to
"maintain over time"
the sanctions that have been decided against Russia.
She called for
“building energy and food independence so that this type of conflict cannot endanger Europe”
.
“We need national unity, European unity”
, continued the ecologist Yannick Jadot who pleads for
“European energy sovereignty by freeing ourselves from our dependence on gas”
.
It
"would not be that Russia's aggression deprives the French of what is the cornerstone of our democratic system"
, warned Marine Le Pen.
"Parasitic" debate
An adviser to the executive, aware that the presidential debate is
"parasitized"
by the conflict, believes that there is
"a need to associate all the political forces"
in the management of the crisis, to
"know the remarks of some and others”
, like what was initiated during the health crisis.
"Without delivering any secret defense or imagining to review the rules of the ballot, the stakeholders in public life have the right to information
," it was added within the government, before a debate on Tuesday in Parliament. .
At the same time, the Élysée informed the press that the president had a long discussion with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.
The return of the war to the Old Continent initially shakes up the opposition.
The governing parties are deprived of a proper debate and struggle to embody an alternative
Far from giving a perspective to the electoral campaign awaiting Emmanuel Macron, his entourage announced the cancellation of the public meeting scheduled for March 5 in Marseille.
It had to be the first.
For now, this non-campaign is not sanctioned by the French.
On the contrary.
The Head of State – who is posing as an essential diplomatic player in Europe – sees the intentions to vote in his favor grow.
He is credited with 28% of the vote (+ 2 points) according to the latest wave of Ifop's daily barometer for
Paris Match
, LCI and Sud Radio.
And earns 3 points in the Harris Interactive survey (27%) for
Challenges
.
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The return of the war to the Old Continent initially shakes up the opposition.
The government parties are deprived of a proper debate and struggle to embody an alternative.
As for the candidates who appear too conciliatory towards Moscow, they are exposed to severe criticism and shaken by internal questions.
Support of Marine Le Pen, the mayor of Béziers Robert Ménard himself cried out in indignation at the place of his friends favorable to the master of the Kremlin.
The charge applies in particular to Éric Zemmour who defended himself on Monday on RTL from being pro-Russian despite his usual positions.
And to summarize his analysis as follows:
"The culprit is Putin, those responsible are NATO."
He has positioned himself against the reception of Ukrainian refugees in France because, he says, they threaten to
"destabilize France"
.
The emergency is first and foremost humanitarian
Valérie Pécresse, LR presidential candidate.
Jordan Bardella, the boss of the RN, advocated the opposite on Twitter.
"Because Europe is a geographical and civilizational reality, it is within it that solidarity must be expressed
," he wrote.
Same request from Valérie Pécresse, on leaving Matignon:
“The emergency is first and foremost humanitarian.”
We must organize
“the aid which will go to Ukraine, to the border countries and which will also go to all the Ukrainian refugees whom we will welcome in France”
, declared the president of the Île-de-France region.