On Ukraine, François Fillon and his ambiguous position, a pebble in Pécresse’s shoe? – The HuffPost

POLITICS – A “yes but” that goes wrong. This Thursday, February 24, after the military offensive launched by Vladimir Putin in Ukrainethe former Prime Minister Francois Fillonwho now works on behalf of the Russian petrochemical giants Sibur and Zarubezhneft, published a convoluted message on the situation. The unsuccessful candidate for the 2017 presidential election takes up the elements of Russian language on theNATO’s eastern expansionthus offering justification to Moscow in his war enterprisedecided in the form of challenging the very legitimacy of the Ukrainian state.

“In 2014 I regretted the conditions of the annexation of Crimea and today I condemn the use of force in Ukraine. But for ten years I have been warning against the refusal of Westerners to take into account Russian demands on the expansion of NATO. This attitude leads today to a dangerous confrontation which could have been avoided”, writes François Fillon, already accused in France of “complicity” against the Russian regime. A lip-service condemnation and justification of Russia’s behavior that provokes a flood of indignant reactions.

Fillon “chose to serve Russian interests”

“No, there are no buts. War is the act of whoever decides to wage it. This half-condemnation does not honor you, to put it mildly”, reacted on Twitter Yael Braun Pivet, LREM deputy and president of the National Assembly’s Law Commission. Asked about this press release on RMC, MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, chairman of the special committee on foreign interference in the European Parliament, considered that the former Prime Minister “chose to serve Russian interests”.

In the French context of the presidential campaign, this conciliatory position vis-à-vis the head of the Kremlin is logically reproached to Valérie Pécresse, who was close to François Fillon for a long time. “Here is the pure representative of the French right LR, wheeler-dealer and ready for all compromises with powerful people hostile to peace in Europe. This same right which gives lessons permanently and which serves an authoritarian regime”, fumed on Twitter the ex-LREM deputy for Meuse Émilie Cariou, before questioning: “what does Valérie Pécresse say about François Fillon?”

“He is perfectly free”

In reality, and since this crisis broke out, Valérie Pécresse is very embarrassed. During the week, it is the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, who asked the candidate to “clarify” her position on the conflict, with regard to the Russian activities of François Fillon.

Wednesday evening on BFMTVtherefore before Vladimir Putin’s offensive, the LR candidate was specifically questioned on the photo (below), published by the Russian government and on which we see the former Prime Minister, honored with a tricolor flag, working hand in hand with Russian power.

“Today there are a lot of French people working in Russian companies, and we are not going to cast shame on each of them”, defended Valérie Pécresse, calling to “leave alone” François Fillon. “He is no longer part of the political class, he no longer works, he is not in my party, he is not in my campaign team”, she further justified. A defense in line with that of Bruno Retailleau, close to the former Prime Minister and in charge of “major reforms” in the campaign team of Valérie Pécresse.

“François Fillon has not been Prime Minister for ten years, he is perfectly free to work in a company. He would never have joined the board of directors of a company if there was some kind of conflict with the higher interests of his country”, justified the boss of the LR senators.

This way of distancing this figure from the right-wing party contrasts with the place he occupied in the debates during the LR Congress debates. For example, the finalist Éric Ciotti, very influential in Valérie Pécresse’s campaign, claimed “totally François Fillon’s project and loyalty to François Fillon”.

A filonist filiation which will not fail to be recalled according to the evolution of the conflict in Ukraine, and on which Valérie Pécresse will have to answer without giving the impression to her electorate of completely disavowing the candidate of her political family in 2017. crest line difficult to hold, as situations of this type often call for binary positioning.

See also on The HuffPost: Crisis in Ukraine: Emmanuel Macron at the center of criticism