On March 22, 2015, the Russian city of Saint Petersburg hosted a global forum that brought together leaders of the far-right from all sides.

It seemed very strange and exciting, as Russia, which kept reminding the world of its crumbling communist empire with a deeply rooted left-communist belief, became home to a political meeting of representatives of the far right of the political spectrum.

This occasion represented a starting point, through which Russia's Tsar Vladimir Putin set out to strengthen his country's relations with the leaders of right-wing parties and currents in Europe, which sees Russia as an inevitable partner to support in preserving European culture, which is living a real threat due to Islamic persecution, as they described it.

A vivid example here is the French right, which is considered a model in Europe and the Western world for ideological extremism, as this current inaugurated close relations with Moscow, which puts it today in an embarrassing position due to the Ukrainian war, which may hinder it from achieving the dream that it had for decades to reach the Elysee Palace in Paris, We are hours away from the French presidential elections scheduled for April 10th.

Europe is white and not American

Despite everyone's awareness of the goals behind Russia's military move to invade Ukraine, foremost of which is to keep NATO away from its western neighbor, Putin was not satisfied with these reasons. .

Press reports in this context have indicated the presence of new Nazi currents in Ukraine led by the "Azov" battalion, which participated in the Ukrainian army in a number of military operations beginning in May 2014, before joining at the request of Kyiv to the regular army due to the Ukrainian government's fear that this might cause these attacks. The battalion is in internal problems as a result of its ideological line.

Despite some truthfulness in Putin's words regarding the presence of neo-Nazis on his country's western borders, the Russian president does not really care about these right-wing currents, especially since he actually supports most of them with money despite some of them adopting Nazi principles.

Right-wing parties in Europe share the same political and ideological orientation, as they look at the world from their principles that govern Christian origins, rejecting excessive liberalism and non-Christian immigration that will change Europe politically, demographically and culturally because of unlimited globalization.

This current sees Putin as the strong leader capable of defending white Europe, for several reasons: The first is that the Russian president - in their view - is the most powerful person in Europe currently. Western diplomatic norms of the American origin.

The Russian president has enjoyed significant support from these right-wing political parties within Europe in the face of US sanctions.

The European rightists do not like the United States of America very much, and consider it an arrogant country that is leading Europe to the abyss.

The importance of this support increased after the economic crisis in 2008 and the refugee crisis in 2015 helped in the rise of the right-wing parties’ shares, as these parties managed to reach power in some European countries, while they wait for their role in other countries such as France.

Going back to history, the Russian presence in France appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was a limited presence, as the number of Russians did not exceed 2% of the total foreign immigrants, so a Russian community was formed from the Russian right-wingers fleeing the Bolshevik revolution.

The communists demanded at that time the expulsion of these Russians, but the French right defended them, forming a white European national front with them.

Then the active movements of this league of Russians began a decade after the Communist revolution, when the Federation of Russian Youth Associations established in 1927 a French branch that included about 300 activists active in Paris and the French south.

This organization received great support from several European fascist parties, and France formed a forum for leaders of the Russian right-wing movements with some Nazi leaders who wanted to confront the important presence of the Soviet Union.

Putin and Marine Le Pen (Reuters)

The attraction of the French right to Russia did not stop at currents that share the same ideological orientations, but rather went beyond the Soviet Union itself, which a proportion of the French right-wing saw after the end of the First World War the force capable of protecting Europe from American imperialism.

The tendency of the French right towards Russia was explained as a kind of infiltration of leftist ideas into this current, but in fact it was not at all. Ethnic white has its basic features.

"Putin"... the dream knight of the right of France

"I'm dreaming of a French Putin"

(Eric Zemmour, French election candidate)

Since its founding in the seventies of the last century, the right-wing National Front party (currently the National Rally) has not been able to rule France, and there are many reasons that have prevented it so far from reaching the Elysee, but there are two main factors, the first is material, and the second is related to foreign relations.

These two influential factors have prompted the Le Pen family to head east to Russia, in the hope of boosting the family's party's chances of winning the elusive presidency.

After reaching the leadership center of her father's party in 2011, Marine Le Pen chose to draw a political line that supports Russia under the pretext of her desire to create an independent France that is not affiliated with either Washington or Moscow.

In October of the same year, the new leader of the Front Party said that the economic crisis experienced by Europe at the time confirmed the possibility of abandoning the United States, and turning instead towards Russia, which deserves to develop relations with it because it shares the same civilizational background with Western Europe.

Le Pen ran for the presidency in France in 2012, but she failed to advance to the second round in order to pass her project to build a tripartite axis consisting of Paris, Berlin and Moscow.

In June 2013, Le Pen traveled to Moscow on her first official visit since assuming the leadership of the party.

Le Pen visited the Crimea region, and met a number of high-ranking Russian figures, such as Sergey Naryshkin, the speaker of the Russian parliament and the current director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, and Dmitry Rogozin, the former Russian deputy prime minister.

Le Pen took advantage of her visit to express her great admiration for Russia, stressing that it is the only French political figure who defends Moscow and its positions, starting with the rejection of same-sex marriage, and ending with its support for the Bashar al-Assad regime.

"Marin" was not the only one who felt a strong attraction to Russia, as many figures belonging to her political environment declared their great support for Moscow, most notably "Marion Marechal Le Pen", her niece who visited Russia more than once since 2012, and was also received on occasions Various Russian official figures, also praising Putin.

This political love between the National Front and Russia began to take a more serious form by 2014, that is, with the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, as the party lined up behind Moscow, and defended its interests by voting against the laws and sanctions that targeted it, whether in the French Parliament or the European Parliament .

This matter was not only the result of sympathy. In the same year, Le Pen's party was able to obtain two Russian loans, the first with a value of two million euros, and the second with a value of 9 million euros. These funds came to save the National Front from cardiac arrest, after several French banks refused to agree to financing party.

In addition to the faltering financial aspect of this loan, the far-right party was required to provide political support for Russia's foreign steps, and the opportunity came in the same period when Russia announced its desire to annex the Crimea.

Information revealed by the investigative website Mediapart indicated that Russia wanted to participate in the Crimean referendum as an "electoral observer" Marine Le Pen, before finally entrusting the task to Emeric Choprad, its foreign policy adviser.

On the other hand, Mediapart quoted the far-right leader as denying all the data that said that her political party line was affected by Russian dictates, stressing that her tendency to Russia for money came mainly after French banks refrained from financing her party.

Putin's support is not limited to Le Pen and her party, but goes beyond him to the second side of the French far-right represented by the former journalist and current French presidential candidate, Eric Zemmour, whose enthusiasm for Putin's project in Europe is no less than his right-wing companion.

In 2004, Zemmour considered that the Orange Revolution in Ukraine to overthrow the pro-Moscow regime was nothing but a Western conspiracy.

With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis in 2014, Zemmour expressed more radical positions when he said that there is no country called Ukraine, dividing Europe into two parts, the first Catholic active in agriculture in the west, and then the second Orthodox dominated by industry in the east, expressing his understanding of Russia's refusal to exist American weapons on its western borders, considering Moscow the last European capital that is trying to challenge the expansion of American imperialism.

Nicolas Bay, the number two in the Zemmour party and a defector from Marine Le Pen.

(European)

Zemmour shares this support for Russia with a number of those close to him as well, beginning with "Nicolas Bay", the second man in the Zemmour party and a defector from Marine Le Pen a few weeks ago, who was close to Russia and the leaders of its local parliament during his activity in the National Front party.

Moreover, there is Philippe de Villiers, the former French Secretary of State who is very close to Zemmour, who praised Putin in a previous interview: “We have a country called Russia with a real leader who puts his country at the center of his concerns. He told me one day As long as Europe is going lost, having lost its form, its roots and the meaning of its existence.

The Russian invasion... the difficult election test

As the election date approaches, the presidential candidates begin to enter into the phase of greater focus. There is no room for error, as every uncalculated step may throw its owner away from the presidential seat race.

And because politics is a minefield that can explode at any moment, its surprises cannot always be expected. The French right woke up to the impact of the Ukraine war, which scattered all its cards internally and externally.

The great predicament of the far-right candidates appeared as soon as the first tanks of the Russian army crossed the border with Ukraine. In the midst of the great wave of sympathy with the Ukrainians that swept France and its people, Russia’s support could not have passed without reducing the chances of these candidates reaching the presidency, and hence the equation appeared here difficult.

Last December, Eric Zemmour came out after a link of praise in Putin's "patriotism" to bet that Moscow would never invade Kyiv, but after being let down by the Kremlin's forces, the man returned to announce his humanitarian solidarity with the victims and wounded of the war, stressing at the same time However, it was the expansion of "NATO" to the east that caused the situation to worsen, adding that it was not in France's interest for the world to enter a new cold war, because that would mean expanding economic sanctions that would negatively affect the French citizen.

Eric Zemmour

Zemmour tried to maintain balance in his statements, sometimes condemning Russia, sometimes attacking NATO, declaring his humanitarian sympathy on occasion, and categorically refusing to receive Ukrainian refugees on several occasions, in a position that contradicts the general political and popular trend in his country.

But as the days passed, maintaining this balanced position became very difficult with the increasing brutality of the Russian forces towards the Ukrainian civilians, and the solidarity of the Europeans with them.

For example, the right-wing candidate described the massacres in the Ukrainian town of Bucha as a heinous and heinous crime that tarnishes Russia's image and condemns its president, whom he considered an example of a national official.

However, in the same context, Zammour ridiculed the allegations of bringing Putin to trial, wondering about the identity of the person or entity that could arrest him while he was sitting on the throne of a nuclear country.

For her part, Marine Le Pen tried to avoid the mistakes of her opponent on the right-wing voting bloc when she rushed to welcome the Ukrainian refugees, considering them to receive them as normal because they are European citizens who share the same culture with other European countries.

The right-wing candidate said that the Russian president crossed a red line, describing the Russian invasion as an inexcusable mistake.

Le Pen sees supporting Ukraine as a humanitarian duty for France, which had earlier rejected the US invasion of Iraq, but at the same time showed great reluctance to talk about the "Baucha" massacre, describing what happened as a war crime that must be investigated to ascertain its merits and who is responsible for it.

Despite her reservations about the Russian move inside Ukraine, she did not hesitate to assert that Russia has its full position within Europe if it comes to its senses.

Le Pen said the dispute with Russia should not push European capitals to isolate Moscow;

Because of its economic and political importance, any step in this direction means Russia's orientation towards China;

This could constitute a dangerous front that threatens Europe politically and economically at this difficult time.

As Eric Zemmour and fellow fascist Marine Le Pen blunder over their positions on the situation in Russia, Emmanuel Macron, the French president and presidential candidate, appears to be benefiting most from the recent shifts.

(European)

While Eric Zemmour and his fellow fascist classmate Marine Le Pen are floundering in their positions on the situation in Russia, as yet unable to present a real picture of the appropriate way to address the external situation after the war has reached inside Europe, Emmanuel Macron, the French president and presidential candidate, seems to benefit most from the transformations The latter, as he tries to market himself as the president who is able to defend France’s interests abroad according to a pragmatic perspective that is not devoid of a humanitarian inclination represented by the great support of the Ukrainian people;

Which may bring him closer and closer to retaining his seat for a second term, as indicated by the majority of opinion polls.