It was urgent to correct the situation. President Zelensky was offended by the reluctance of Emmanuel Macron concerned, he repeated, to “don’t humiliate Russia”. And then, Europe is the DNA of Macronism. The French presidency of the Council of the Union ends in two weeks. It was therefore urgent to go to kyiv accompanied by two heads of government of the founding countries of the Union, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi, but also the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis. A way of staging the unity of the continent, beyond any divide between East and West.
The opposition criticizes the timing of this trip, three days before the second round of legislative elections. It’s normal. Emmanuel Macron also had this electoral context in mind. And he rather skilfully played with the mixture of genres. With a solemn appeal to a “solid majority” from France, on the tarmac, just before taking off. And then all the same an allusion to the second round of the ballot Thursday evening on TF1, from kyiv, when he repeated that the French had to be “strong” to deal with the context of war in Europe. “Strong”, that is, gathered behind him, let’s be clear. One can understand that the opposition is enraged.
A sign of his embarrassment, Jean-Luc Mélenchon ruled on Tuesday that Emmanuel Macron’s departure for Romania was a “mark of contempt” for the second round of legislative elections. And then yesterday, the leader of the Insoumis still wanted to “(to) associate with the message of solidarity” carried by the French president to the Ukrainians.
Emmanuel Macron no doubt hopes to benefit a little at the ballot box from what was called the “flag effect” when Ukraine was triggered. But more than the war, it is Europe that the Head of State wanted to put back at the center of the debate as the vote approaches. The subject divides the allies of the Nupes. They had a hard time digesting, during the campaign, the “disobedience to European treaties” advocated by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The same thing with the exit from NATO: it is defended by the rebellious and the communists, but rejected by the socialists and the ecologists.
By adding to “world disorder” the specter of a “French mess” if he does not obtain a majority, Emmanuel Macron is therefore trying to awaken the internal divisions in the coalition facing him. And to bring back a centre-left electorate that remains resolutely pro-European.