No French president has won a second term while his party retains a majority in Parliament, since the French adopted the use of the ballot box to choose the president in 1965.

Former presidents François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac have both been re-elected, but the absence of a loyal majority in Parliament has produced opposition governments that have "cleared their wings", as French journalist Sylvie Kaufmann put it in an article for the Financial Times.

Kaufman believes in her article under the title "Putin's long shadow hangs over the French elections" that current President Emmanuel Macron had hoped to be the first French president to overcome this challenge thanks to the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.

She says that the Russian threat to invade and then invade Ukraine prompted the French president to carry out frantic global diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis, and his efforts were present in the media coverage, while the rest of the 11 presidential candidates - initially sought to try to distract voters from news of the war Tragic Eastern Europe.

Speaking about the candidates' swings in popularity according to the effects of the war on the French street, Kaufmann says Macron did not initially see the need for an election campaign, because the only thing that seemed to interest voters was Putin's military campaign in Ukraine.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis boosted his chances in the elections, as opinion polls showed an increase in his supporters.


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But public interest in this war took a new turn two weeks ago with the steady rise in fuel and food prices, as voters began to realize that Putin's war in Ukraine is not just a limited humanitarian and geopolitical disaster, but that its effects affect their daily lives.

And the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen realized this fact without the other candidates - according to the writer - so she began to play on the high cost of living, and skillfully changed the focus of her campaign accordingly, and presented herself as a defender of the rights of the groups most affected by high prices.

The journalist says that Le Pen focuses on the idea that sanctions against Russia should not harm the French people.

A number of promises were made in this regard, including a promise to abolish value-added tax on many basic commodities and reduce gasoline prices.

She points out that the cost of living quickly became the first concern of French voters, and opinion polls reflected this, as they showed Le Pen's popularity rising against Macron's decline.

And opinion polls on Friday showed that the gap between Macron and Le Pen narrowed to a small difference, as it scored 26.5% in favor of Macron compared to 23% for Le Pen.

The writer said that the atrocities committed in Bucha brought the war in Ukraine back into the debate in France, and gave the influence of the Russian leader on the French elections another turn.

It concluded that the ghost of Putin still hangs over the French political scene 5 years after the elections in which Macron won over his rival Le Pen, but the risks are now greater, as he fears that the victory of the far-right candidate will contribute to fulfilling Putin's dream of destabilizing Europe.