Emmanuel Macron “has a voice that carries, which is respected”, underlines a Europe specialist

Pascale Joannin, general director of the Robert Schuman Foundation, was invited to franceinfo on Thursday.

Emmanuel Macron assumes the hypothesis of sending ground troops to Ukraine. In an interview with the British weekly The Economist, the French president reiterated this position which has upset many European countries. “If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there was a Ukrainian request – which is not the case today – we should legitimately ask ourselves the question“, the French president told the British weekly.

“To dismiss it a priori is to fail to learn the lessons of the last two years“, while NATO countries had initially ruled out sending tanks and planes to Ukraine before finally changing their minds, he added. For Pascale Joannin, director general of the Robert-Schuman Foundation, this clarification is logical.

franceinfo: Why was this clarification from Emmanuel Macron on the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine necessary?

Pascale Joannin: Because, first of all, he is not alone. When he made his first outing, there was a lot of comment about the fact that he was a little isolated. There are plenty of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, notably Poland and the Baltics, which are totally on this line. And then, he still puts conditions there which are: if the Ukrainian front has ever been breached by the Russians and then if kyiv requests it. On February 1, there was an exceptional European Council, we decided to support Ukraine whatever the cost somewhere, to use this expression that Mario Draghi used in 2012. So we have to go as far as at the end of logic. We can’t stop halfway.

If he repeats it, in this major British weekly in an interview in English, it is perhaps because he has not lost hope of convincing his European counterparts who are much more reserved on this perspective. ..

The reluctance comes from Germany. Germany was completely turned upside down by the war in Ukraine, in economic matters, in energy matters and in strategic defense matters. So for her, it is a complete withdrawal from her model which was based on cheap energy, globalized trade and defense which was provided by the Americans. So all that is being undermined and it is doing it in the other country where we know how to talk about defense: the United Kingdom, which left the European Union, nonetheless remains very active on defense issues and notably support for Ukraine.

Emmanuel Macron wants to talk about European defense within a European policy committee…

Absolutely and so on this subject, he is a little bit what we are waiting for. Firstly because France is what it is: it is a nuclear power, it is the permanent member of the UN Security Council. He has a voice that carries, that is respected. He tries to move the lines a little to say: “It took me a long time, perhaps to get where I am, I procrastinated, I was criticized for it, etc. But now, there is no need to hesitate.” Putin will not hesitate. And so we must not be naive. If we were ever weak, he would take advantage of it.

Isn’t the president, with this interview, also putting the war in Ukraine back at the forefront of the European election campaign?

In any case, the war in Ukraine is there. It started on February 24, 2022. It would be stupid not to talk about it, since it changed certain things that are being done in Brussels, which were not being done and which are being done because the war is back on the European continent. There are things that have been done that we would never have imagined: to provide ammunition, to have European funds which allow Member States to be reimbursed, etc. In this European electoral campaign, we know that there are political movements which are rather inclined to support Vladimir Putin. So this is what Emmanuel Macron said to voters: “Look at the ballot paper before you vote, look at what the people you want to vote for are offering you… Because there are political parties that are running that are not at all in support of Ukraine. “