Carole Ferry, edited by Solène Leroux 10:28 a.m., April 20, 2022

Should we go further in the sanctions against Russia or not?

The two qualified candidates for the second round of the presidential election are opposed on the question.

For Marine Le Pen, the answer is no because these sanctions would further undermine the purchasing power of the French.

But Emmanuel Macron believes on the contrary that France must defend the idea of ​​a European embargo on oil.

ANALYSIS

Four days before the second round of the presidential election, one more subject opposes the two candidates: should we go further in the sanctions against Russia or not?

For Marine Le Pen, there should be no new sanctions on gas or oil, because they would further undermine the purchasing power of the French.

For Emmanuel Macron, France must on the contrary defend the idea of ​​a European embargo on oil.

On our antenna on Tuesday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire declared that he hoped that France could convince "its European partners" in the coming weeks.

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"When you see what is happening in the Donbass, more than ever, it is necessary to stop imports of Russian oil," he said in particular at the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk.

"What is the first source of foreign currency for several years for the power of Vladimir Putin? It's not gas, it's oil", still assured the support of Emmanuel Macron.

An oil embargo would have little impact in France

The Minister of the Economy therefore wants to target Russian oil.

But is this really the best way to hit Russia in the wallet?

The sale of oil brings about 200 billion euros per year to Russia, five times more than gas.

An observation made before the soaring gas prices.

But if the gap must have narrowed since then, it remains in any case one of the main resources of the country.

For France, an embargo would have little impact, since Russian imports barely represent 10% of our needs.

The Hungarians and Poles, on the other hand, are much more dependent, as are the Germans who import a lot of Russian diesel. 

Get supplies elsewhere?

Finding other sources of supply for Europe is not so easy, according to Alain Corbani, head of raw materials at Finance SA.

"The Americans are in heaven. They are in the process of sending us as much oil as possible," he explains.

“All the Gulf countries can obviously export more oil, but for the moment, they have no intention of doing so,” he explains again at the microphone of Europe 1. Finally, “there is the countries of Africa, but we do not see a strong increase in their production capacities" to date, assures the specialist.

An embargo on Russian oil would therefore inevitably raise prices at the pump.

Of how many ?

Difficult to say, everything depends on the recovery by the Chinese and the Indians of this Russian oil market, which would limit the rise in prices, but also the impact of the sanctions.