PARIS – Marin Le Pen has more than one Russian skeleton in her closet – from her admiration for President Vladimir Putin to party loans from a Russian bank – with headlines dominated by growing accounts of Russian atrocities in Ukraine. French presidential election should be a walk for Emanuel Macron. And yet it is not. The leader of the far-right party National Rally is unpleasantly closing the race for the liberal president in view of the first round of voting on Sunday. Indeed, the French president is fighting to defend his history in Russia. On Wednesday, Macron responded strongly to criticism by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki that he was talking to Putin and therefore “negotiating with criminals.” “These words are both unfounded and scandalous, but they do not surprise me,” Macron told French television channel TF1. “They are taking part in the presidential campaign. “The Polish prime minister belongs to a far-right party and supports Marin Lepen.” Morawiecki referred to Macron’s regular talks with Putin as part of an ongoing, albeit failed, diplomatic effort to end the war. On Wednesday, Macron again defended his decision to keep the line to Moscow open and sought to redirect criticism to Lepen. “I remain absolutely, absolutely in my choice to speak to Russia, to avoid war… And I have never been an accomplice [of Putin]”unlike others,” he said, strongly implying Le Pen’s hospitable relations with Moscow in the past. Similarly, during a visit to Britain on Tuesday, Macron sought to shed light on his opponent’s previous relationship with Russia, telling reporters that he was not “complacent” to Putin or “funded”. from Russia “.

Water from the back of a duck

Le Pen and Russia go back a bit. The National Rally party is still repaying a 9m-euro loan from a Russian bank in 2014 and has often sided with Moscow – either for the annexation of Crimea or for the fate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Last month, Le Pen’s campaign team reportedly had to put in more than a million campaign leaflets for a photo of her shaking hands with Putin in 2017. And yet these have not disturbed Le Pen’s presidential candidacy too much and he has stubbornly gone to the polls after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, Lepen is set to win 22% of the vote in the first round, reducing the lead from leading Macron to 27%. Crucially, opinion polls suggest that Lepen is narrowing the gap to the current round of elections on April 24. This is partly related to Le Pen’s skilful approach to the war in Ukraine. The far-right U-leader quickly turned to Putin at the start of the war, admitting on television that the conflict had “changed its mind” about the Russian president and has since consistently condemned the invasion. At times, she even tried to outdo Macron in her response to the crisis, calling for the Russian ambassador to be deported on Wednesday when France decided to expel several dozen Russian diplomats for reporting on atrocities against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bukha. . Eric Zemour’s far-right opponent has also taken over much of the phenomenon amid tighter media control. Also an admirer of Putin, Zemmour stumbled in the early days of the war, urging Ukrainian refugees to be welcomed in Poland, not France. “The media trial of Putin’s former friends has hurt us more than Le Pen,” a top Zemour ally recently acknowledged, adding: [international news]. » Instead, Le Pen has kept his campaign focused on the rising cost of living for ordinary French people, driven by higher inflation and the impact of sanctions on Russia on the European economy. The issue has dominated the public debate before the election.
On Tuesday, Le Pen sought to portray herself as a protector of French families in the face of EU sanctions on Russia. “The solution to limit gas and gasoline imports [from Russia]”This will be a tragedy for French families,” he told French radio station RTL. “I’m sorry to tell you, my priority is to defend the purchasing power of French families,” he said. Macron, on the other hand, appeared to be playing catch-up in the campaign, arguing that his financial measures were also protecting French purchasing power and fighting revelations that his government had spent millions of euros on expensive consulting firm fees. His government is also actively promoting more energy sanctions in Russia. If opinion polls suggest Macron and Le Pen will face off in the second round, Le Pen may need to convince voters beyond her political base that her Russian connections are not an obstacle to French rule. Macron has so far distanced himself from naming Le Pen directly over its ties to Russia. In the second round, the gloves are more likely to come off.