Emmanuel Macron will explain Thursday evening to the French on the issues of support for Ukraine, after his controversial comments on the possible sending of Western soldiers, in the face of an increasingly “threatening” Russia in Europe.
Three months before the European elections, his interview on the 8:00 p.m. television news on TF1 and France 2 will also de facto mark his entry into the campaign, after his camp's first meeting on Sunday in Lille.
He will also speak in the wake of the first major debate, on Public Senate, with all the heads of the list with the notable exception of Jordan Bardella (National Rally) represented by Thierry Mariani, a MEP known to be close to Moscow.
The presidential majority has notably planned to focus its campaign on support for Ukraine, accusing the National Rally, which is leading in the polls, and La France insoumise, of maintaining pro-Russian positions.
“The president will report on the situation in an educational manner,” summarizes a close friend, after the signing of the bilateral security agreement with kyiv and the debate in Parliament on support for Ukraine.
Also read “No limits against Russia”: MPs vote in support of Ukraine at the end of an electric debate
The National Assembly on Tuesday, like the Senate on Wednesday, largely approved the security agreement, far from the consensus generally observed on international issues.
“It is legitimate and natural that he can address the French (…) to say, eye to eye, what the state of the situation is and how to organize things in the weeks to come,” adds -he.
“Your children are not going to die in Ukraine”
The head of state is especially expected on his declarations regarding the possible sending of troops to Ukraine, which have caused unrest in a large part of Europe, even if he emphasized that no consensus existed “at this stage” among the allies and that it assumed above all a “strategic ambiguity” vis-à-vis Russia.
VIDEO.
Ukraine: Macron says sending troops in the future cannot “be ruled out”
His Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu has since cleared the ground by specifying that the sending of “fighting troops” was not on the table and that the question rather related to the presence of trainers from the Ukrainian army in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also wanted to be reassuring on Monday.
“Your children are not going to die in Ukraine,” he said.
But above all, ambiguity has been instilled in people's minds.
Two-thirds (68%) of French people consider that Emmanuel Macron was wrong to display this position, according to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey carried out at the end of February for Le Figaro.
Two years after the start of the Russian offensive, on February 24, 2022, the impact of the war on European economies, fears of the conflict extending westward and a certain attrition are also being felt in support for Ukraine.
“Reassure and dramatize”
At the beginning of March, 39% of French people, or 11 points less than in June 2023, considered that France should continue to support Ukraine economically and financially as it currently does, according to an Elabe poll for La Tribune.
Same trend regarding military support, with 79% also opposing the sending of combat troops on the ground and even 47% opposing that of trainers.
“Emmanuel Macron will first have to reassure the French about their concerns about the risks of the conflict spreading,” points out Bernard Sananès, president of the Elabe institute.
Russian President Vladimir Putin himself contributes to this feeling by constantly raising the threat of nuclear conflict.
He again praised his country's nuclear arsenal on Wednesday, "more advanced" according to him than that of the United States.
Read alsoMoscow “ready” for nuclear war: what Vladimir Putin’s new warning reveals
At the same time, Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister are increasing alarmist warnings in the event of a Russian victory and calling for a redoubled effort in supporting Ukraine.
“Powers that have become unstoppable” are “expanding the threat every day, attacking us more,” insists the Head of State, calling to live up to “the height of History and the courage that 'she implies'.
Gabriel Attal predicted a “cataclysm for the purchasing power” of the French if Russia were to win the war, with “food inflation to the power of ten, an explosion in energy prices to the power of ten”.