In view of the war in Ukraine, the French President declared the second round of the parliamentary elections this Sunday to be a fateful choice.

War was raging two and a half hours by air from France.

Emmanuel Macron said on the return trip from Kyiv that he would like everyone to assess what that means.

“Fuel prices are rising, so are natural gas prices.

All of this is related to the conflict,” said Macron.

Russia has completely halted gas supplies to France via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline since June 15, French utility GRT-Gaz announced on Friday.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Concerns about purchasing power and energy supply are important campaign issues.

"We have to be strong in order to be credible abroad and be able to make extraordinary decisions extraordinarily quickly," Macron campaigned for a clear majority in the National Assembly.

According to the latest polls, the president cannot be sure that his camp will get the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

In 2017, 350 deputies moved into the National Assembly for Macron.

The left-wing alliance NUPES stands for "disorder" and "chaos", warned Finance and Economics Minister Bruno Le Maire.

He dubbed left-wing spokesman Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who wants to become prime minister, “a Gallic Hugo Chávez”.

Mélenchon has already envisioned the scenario for the day after the parliamentary elections.

"On Monday I'll sit at home and wait for the President to call," he said on the BFM TV station on Friday.

Macron will then ask him to form a government.

He rejects the forecasts that the left-wing electoral alliance NUPES, made up of the Left Party, Communists, Greens and Socialists, could at best win 190 MPs.

No criticism of arms deliveries

He is trying to allay concerns about a blockade in France in the event of a left-wing parliamentary majority.

"I will find a compromise with the President-elect," Mélenchon said.

The Russian President must be clear that he has no ally in him.

"I will not take the risk of giving the Russians the impression that we are divided," he said.

Unlike immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the left-wing spokesman did not criticize the deliveries of modern heavy weapons.

Macron has promised the Ukrainian army six more CAESAR truck-mounted modern artillery systems.

The French army is thus giving up almost a third of its own reserves to artillery pieces.

Macron has urged manufacturer Nexter to speed up production to quickly fill the gap.

Although the Left Party has always railed against the "arms race", Mélenchon has not expressed any criticism.

"It's no time for polemics," he said.

He would also “not put a NATO exit first on the agenda”.

The founder of the left-wing party, The Indomitable France (LFI), has in the past advertised that he would lead his country out of the defense alliance and transform it into a "peace power".

At the beginning of the week he criticized Macron's appearance on the tarmac at Orly Airport.

The President had warned in front of the Presidential Airbus to give him an absolute majority that was "in the overriding interest of the nation".

"This Trump-style sketch to warn us of the enemy within is a symbol of our era," commented Mélenchon.

cloak of silence about the past

Especially with a view to the Green electorate, Mélenchon would like to see earlier statements about Putin and Russia forgotten.

At the time, he had praised the Russian military operation in Syria.

"They will solve the problem and eliminate the terrorist organization Islamic State," he said.

He called bombing raids on the civilian population of Aleppo "North American propaganda".

After the annexation of Crimea, he wrote on his blog in March 2014: “Of course Crimea is lost to NATO.

Good news!

One can only hope now that the gang of provocateurs and troublemakers will calm down.” In the daily Le Monde, Mélenchon said: “Did he (Putin) have a choice?

Could he accept NATO's advance on the Crimean Peninsula, where its large naval base is located?" Again in "Le Monde" on January 18, 2022, he expressed understanding for the Russian troop concentration on the borders with Ukraine: "Who wouldn't with such a neighbor act similarly?” Ukraine is “a country allied with a power that constantly threatens”.

Mélenchon lamented "the old Cold War methods".

On February 10, Mélenchon told France 2 TV that "Russia feels humiliated, threatened and attacked".

The US had decided to integrate Ukraine into NATO, he claimed.

After the Russian attack, he admitted his "mistake".

He argued that France must remain "non-aligned," which is not the same as "neutral."

"I'm clearly on Zelenskyy's side against Putin.

But France must maintain its autonomy in talks,” stressed Mélenchon.

France must not be "a compartment of the NATO train that is controlled solely by America".

He has claimed that in the event of an election victory he will have a say in defense policy.

Should his party form the strongest opposition faction, it is likely to lead the budget committee of the National Assembly.

This would also give her options for designing the defense budget.