Presidential 2022: Emmanuel Macron tries to manage the diplomatic affront inflicted by Vladimir Putin – Le Monde

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And suddenly, the affront. Despite his diplomatic activism, Emmanuel Macron did not manage to ” de-escalation ” so hoped for in the file of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. Certainly, the Russian President, Vladmir Putin, had the courtesy, Monday, February 21, to warn the French head of state, by a phone call at 4.15 p.m., that he was preparing to recognize the independence of the two separatist entities of the Ukrainian Donbass, the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, before the first columns of Russian armored vehicles entered this region of eastern Ukraine, in a pseudo-logic of “defense” .

But the head of the Kremlin broke all the commitments he had made a few hours earlier. More than ever, war is at Europe’s doorstep. “Yes, Russia is on the fringes of international law”, commented the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, before the National Assembly, Tuesday, February 22, bringing “his unwavering support for the Ukrainian people”. “What is brewing is serious “, we underline at the Elysée.

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This disappointment is unwelcome fifty days, barely, of the presidential election. In the eyes of part of the opposition, the betrayal of Vladimir Putin may be shocking, it would be the translation of the diplomatic berezina of the head of state. On the right, Valérie Pécresse, candidate for the Les Républicains (LR) party, denounced, on Tuesday on France Inter, an essential dialogue but “too late” and “lonely”. Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken seventeen times by telephone with his Russian counterpart over the past two years and has mediated in recent days with the leaders of the United States, Germany and representatives of the European Union, would, she said, , “ staged » in a crisis “used for electoral purposes”.

“Aborted negotiations with the Iranians at the Biarritz summit [en 2019] up to the forced departure of our soldiers in Mali, passing through the failure in Lebanon and the humiliation in the affair of the Australian submarines, the Macron presidency will have weakened France on the international level. Its policy of permanent blows will have been only a succession of sword strokes in the water”, sinks the senator (LR) of Vendée Bruno Retailleau, adviser to Mme Pécresse. “It’s one more episode, maybe the episode too many”, abounded Tuesday the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis and president of the UDI, Jean-Christophe Lagarde, considering that Emmanuel Macron had been made “fool” by Vladimir Putin.

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