Like an air of sacred union, at least for a day: Emmanuel Macron pleaded, Thursday, February 24, the "unity" of the French in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, unanimously condemned by the candidates for six weeks from first round of the presidential election.
During a short televised address, the outgoing president called for "not to give in to our principles of freedom, sovereignty and democracy", warning the French that this "act of war" will have "deep, lasting consequences on our lives and the geopolitics of our continent".
In these troubled hours where the ghosts of the past are reborn, where there will be many manipulations, let's not give up any of our unity.
pic.twitter.com/dtJYtVNQmo
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 24, 2022
He also promised that France and its allies will decide on sanctions against Russia "at the height of the aggression of which it is guilty".
Emmanuel Macron must also send a message to Parliament during a solemn session on Friday.
In unison, the presidential candidates of both right and left condemned this armed intervention on Thursday, calling for a ceasefire and to mix diplomatic action and severe sanctions targeted against Moscow, even, for the ecologist Yannick Jadot, to deliver arms to Kiev.
>> To read: In Paris, demonstration against the invasion of Ukraine in front of the Russian embassy
Including in the camp of those who spared Putin's Russia the most, such as the leader of rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon or the far-right candidates Éric Zemmour (Reconquest!) and Marine Le Pen (National Rally) .
At 46 days from the first round, it is still too early to judge the impact of the event on the French and the presidential election, but it completely upsets the campaign.
While foreign policy issues generally weigh little in a presidential election, the fact that war is on the doorstep of the European Union and that it has an impact on Emmanuel Macron's entry into the scene could change the situation and favor the outgoing president, analysts say.
"This is unheard of"
The head of state finds himself caught in a pincer movement, he who has gone to the front line to try to resolve, without success, the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which has earned him criticism from the opposition.
He is the big favorite in the polls of voting intentions but he sees his re-election campaign go from postponement to postponement.
More broadly, these events "prevent(s) the campaign from progressing", underlines PollingVox pollster Jérôme Sainte-Marie, for whom "it will further weaken the real issues of the campaign, in particular the social issues which are inaudible".
"It's unheard of" to have a war in campaign time, notes for his part Frédéric Dabi, director general opinion at Ifop. "But it remains very difficult to predict.
What we can perhaps anticipate is a logic of distinction between the president and the other candidates “according to who is the most “presidentiable”.
>> To read: Presidential: how Hidalgo and Jadot use the Ukrainian crisis to attack Mélenchon
Expected in the evening at the traditional dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (Crif) – one of the imposed campaign figures – the Head of State had to cancel his visit to go to an extraordinary European Council in Brussels.
For their part, several candidates like Yannick Jadot or Christiane Taubira have postponed or canceled trips planned for Thursday to participate in pro-Ukraine demonstrations.
And France 2 has deprogrammed a debate in the evening with Marine Le Pen.
The collection of sponsorships, on the other hand, continues.
In its latest count, published Thursday at 5 p.m., the Constitutional Council revealed that Jean-Luc Mélenchon had in turn exceeded the 500 signature mark, while Éric Zemmour (415 sponsorships) and Marine Le Pen (414 sponsorships) closer to the goal.
With AFP
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