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In normal times, Emmanuel Macron would have hit the campaign trail by now to try for a second term in a presidential election only seven weeks away, plotting strategy, appearing in TV debates and firing up supporters at rallies.
But times are far from normal, and none of this is happening.
Instead, the French president seems chained to his desk, a five o’clock shadow growing into a stubble, brows furrowed, his attention focused east, as he hopes to dissuade Russian leader Vladimir Putin from waging all-out war in Ukraine.
Macron hasn’t even told the nation whether he plans to run for re-election in the April vote, though few doubt that he will.
In the past few days, he has spent countless hours on the telephone to nearly every leader with a stake in the Ukraine crisis: Putin, US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and EU leaders.
The opposition at home accuses him of putting on “a show” as he hugs the world headlines with his diplomacy instead of engaging with other presidential hopefuls at home.
Some say he is living dangerously by pinning his chances of scoring diplomatic points on someone as unpredictable as Putin.
Credit for ‘having tried’
But the downside appears limited, as Macron will be given credit for “having tried” even if Russian tanks end up rolling towards Kyiv, according to Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, who heads MCBG, a public relations firm.
“Even if he fails with the Russians, he will have emerged as leading the European effort,” he told AFP. This, he said, was all the more significant as Macron is acting “without the guiding role of Angela Merkel”, the former German…
Source : france24
