"Women and children were killed again today..." The tragedy of our times is evident from the first words of Emmanuel Macron's speech.
Kiev is surrounded by Russian armor, Kharkiv under the yoke of bombing, Kherson in the hands of the invader, when the president speaks this Wednesday evening, seven days after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
He will therefore have used the very last window of media fire before his declaration of candidacy, to take before the French this posture of father of the Nation that he likes.
“I will only have a compass, you protect”, he says elsewhere.
Message to hear also, as part of this speech, in the perspective of the presidential election which will be held in just over a month.
There is this sentence that we no longer expected to hear: “The war in Europe no longer belongs to our history books or our school books.
It is there, before our eyes, ”explains the head of state who recorded his remarks a few minutes before from the village hall of the presidential palace.
Faced with this "brutal return" of the tragic in history, he draped himself in the clothes of the one who wants to tell the French that he is there and that he is carrying the solutions... of which he speaks in the future simple.
As if he was simply endorsing his candidacy.
“Russia is not the attacked, it is the aggressor”
An important part of his remarks thus aims to justify the options chosen in recent weeks… “We must explain to the French the choices we are making”, he had said shortly before, behind closed doors of the Council of Ministers.
Macron claims in particular to maintain the link with the implacable master of the Kremlin: “I have chosen to stay in contact, as much as I can, and as much as necessary, with President Putin.
“It is a question, he justifies while these efforts have so far been fruitless, of “relentlessly seeking to convince him to give up arms”, “to prevent the contagion of the conflict”.
The wrong is stated as follows: “Russia is not attacked, it is the aggressor.
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Emmanuel Macron's speech
However, like the very morning at the Council of Ministers, he takes care to insist on one point: “We are not at war with Russia.
We are all united with the Russian people.
“Understanding that bellicose remarks, such as those of Bruno Le Maire the day before, are not welcome… Tuesday morning, the Minister of the Economy had gone so far as to assume that he wanted to “cause the collapse of the Russian economy”.
The retort, all in threats, from Moscow was immediate and the tenant of Bercy obliged to make an act of contrition.
The candidate also shines through when he puts forward his plan at a time when “the balance of our continent is already upset”.
Arguing for sovereignty, he warns: “Our agriculture, our industry, many economic sectors are suffering or will suffer.
Our growth, today at its highest, will inevitably be weakened.
“So many topics that echo his campaign… Not to mention the increase in oil prices, which “will have an impact on our purchasing power”.
He also mentions inflation… To the most affected sectors, he promises a “resilience plan”, a form of “whatever the cost” in the face of war.
A summit in Versailles “in the presence of all the Heads of State and Government” of the Union
“We must respond with historic measures”, continues the tenant of the Élysée, advancing on the increase in the national defense budget and his desire to push an old sea serpent: a Europe of Defense, of which he intends "decide" on the future at a summit on March 10 and 11 in Versailles "in the presence of all the Heads of State and Government" of the Union.
Rare announcements of his speech…
At the beginning of February, before he went to see Putin in the Kremlin, several of his advisers had warned him against a possible diplomatic “slap in the face”.
Uplifting response from the president: “Yes, but I have to take risks.
That he takes advantage of this last opportunity for a solemn address is therefore not by chance.
"It can serve him, yes," admits an executive adviser.
By warning nevertheless: “Risk areas, they are also everywhere.
It can serve him in a second.
And he's going to live six weeks with that.
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