U-turn in progress.
Until then, the positions concerning the Ukrainian conflict of Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Fabien Roussel seemed unshakeable: no alignment with the United States and a rapid exit from NATO's integrated command.
Except that the Russian invasion in Ukraine came to sow disorder in the very clear-cut speeches of these pretenders to the Élysée.
41 days before the presidential election, these candidates, deemed conciliatory with Russia, on the left and on the right, are therefore trying to negotiate a perilous turn.
The rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had shown a certain fondness for Moscow since the beginning of the campaign, was forced to condemn, on February 25, the attitude of Vladimir Poutine.
“Russia is attacking Ukraine, showing an immeasurable will to power, he declared during a trip to Reunion. Russia (…) creates the immediate danger of a generalized conflict which threatens the whole humanity."
🔴 #Ukraine: I condemn the attack on #Putin
Find my intervention on France 2.#Russia #SpecialUkraineFrance2 pic.twitter.com/bAebPDm2V3
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) February 25, 2022
"Never late for a complacency vis-à-vis Putin"
However, the one who supported the Russian intervention in Syria in 2015 did not make the same comments in an interview with Le Monde and published on January 18.
"The Russians are mobilizing on their borders? Who wouldn't do the same with such a neighbour, a country linked to a power that continually threatens them?" , which means that neither the Russians should enter Ukraine, nor the Americans should annex Ukraine into NATO".
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, however, defends himself from any political reversal.
“From the start, I have said that if you try to establish NATO on the border with Russia, in Ukraine, you will have a major incident,” he justified on France Info on Friday.
Moreover, the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône, who advocates "de-escalation", still does not call for any sanctions against Russia.
Just as he refuses to call the Russian president a dictator, preferring the term "autocrat".
An unclear position that his opponents did not fail to castigate.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is "never late with a complacency vis-à-vis Putin", mocked Yannick Jadot in a press release published on Friday.
"He endorses the arguments of Russian propaganda that, basically,
Same political acrobatics with Fabien Roussel.
A few days before the Russian invasion, the communist candidate pleaded for a non-alignment with the great powers: "There is the bear of the taiga, and (…) the American hawks (…) who have been pushing for years for the Ukraine joins NATO.
But since Thursday morning, the deputy from the North has also condemned Moscow's attitude: "The Russian president has chosen war. He has decided to violate international rules. Everything must be done for the return of peace!"
However, Fabien Roussel has not removed all the ambiguities of his positions concerning Russia.
Like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he does not mention sanctions vis-à-vis Moscow, nor the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.
Marine Le Pen's pirouette
On the far right, too, the rhetoric has also changed.
Marine Le Pen, who said in 2011 in the Russian newspaper Kommersant that she "admired" Vladimir Putin, also regretted "the act of escalation".
"No reason can justify the launch of a military operation against Ukraine by Russia which upsets the balance of peace in Europe. It must be unequivocally condemned", she said on February 24 in a statement.
Unlike Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Fabien Roussel, she for her part said she wanted "the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine".
At the end of March 2017, Vladimir Poutine had however received Marine Le Pen in the middle of the presidential campaign.
The then National Front candidate spoke on this occasion about the sanctions imposed on Russia in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The tone was quite different.
More recently, in January, invited to sign a joint declaration with her European nationalist allies, Marine Le Pen had refused to initial the passage condemning Russian military actions.
It must be said that his party owes a lot to Russia.
In 2014, the National Front had borrowed some 9.4 million euros from a Russian private bank after having suffered the refusal of several French banking establishments.
Asked Friday on BFMTV about her links with Russia, and in particular on the Russian loan of 2014, Marine Le Pen firmly denied being a relay of power for Vladimir Putin in France.
"I was one of the only political leaders to try to maintain an equidistance between the United States and Russia (…). The mere fact of maintaining this equidistance leads to this accusation", objected the candidate, mocking the officials policies "extremely dependent on the American vision".
"I dream of a French Poutine"
Paradigm shift also notable in Éric Zemmour.
The one who still affirmed in December on France 2 that "Russia would not invade Ukraine", denouncing American "propaganda", also had to resolve to blame Moscow's attitude.
"I unreservedly condemn the Russian military intervention in Ukraine", assured Thursday the candidate of Reconquest!
during his press conference.
His failed predictions may be explained by his admiration for the Russian president.
"I dream of a French Poutine", he confessed in 2018 during an interview with L'Opinion.
"I am for the Russian alliance. I think it is the ally that would be the most reliable," he added last September on CNews.
"Vladimir Putin is a Russian patriot. It is legitimate for him to defend the interests of Russia", also assured the pamphleteer on France Inter at the beginning of February.
This explains why the Russophile candidate immediately hastened to condemn the other players in the conflict: Europe, NATO and, more generally, "each of us".
"We are all responsible, we must understand Russian claims against expansion," he added, seeking to clear Vladimir Putin.
No wonder the far-right candidate pleads for a "treaty consecrating the end of NATO expansion".
Positions that are not new.
In his book "A five-year term for nothing", published in 2016, he already claimed that "Ukraine does not exist", because "modern Ukraine is a country of odds and ends".
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app
google-play-badge_EN