Three days before the second round of the legislative elections, Emmanuel Macron's trip to Ukraine on Thursday was seen as a political coup by the president's opponents.
And this, even if France holds the presidency of the European Union until June 30 and that the head of state was accompanied by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi.
The Insoumis leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, saw in it a mark of “contempt” of the president, even if he however “associated (é) with his message of solidarity with Ukraine”.
One of his lieutenants, the LFI deputy already re-elected Alexis Corbière, clearly denounced "a communication operation".
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: "Macron's trip is important proof of support"
On the other side of the chessboard, Marine Le Pen also questioned the timing of this visit.
“Emmanuel Macron uses this posture of warlord to try to have an influence on the legislative elections”, she accused on France Inter.
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Emmanuel Macron salutes the "heroism" of the Ukrainians
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“If we really want to reach an agreement, a mediation, it is not by staging”, launched for his part the president of the Republicans, Christian Jacob.
The mayor (LR) of Meaux, Jean-François Copé, torpedoed the president's "avoidance strategy", which would be "incredibly light", because he "let the extreme right and extreme left rise".
This visit comes after another highly criticized sequence: that of the speech of the tenant of the Élysée on the tarmac of Orly airport, Tuesday, June 14.
Macron had called on voters to give him a "solid" majority, a "republican start" to avoid "disorder".
The Minister Delegate for Europe, Clément Beaune, responded to these attacks by arguing that “the President of the Republic is not a candidate for the legislative elections”.
But for the opposition, this sequence and the last-minute interview from kyiv at 8 p.m. on TF1, three days before the election, is a bit big... not doing enough in this campaign, recognizes a majority executive.
And we are facing someone who is not in the lace, so… ”