The war in Ukraine is “a nightmare” for Eric Zemmour, a member of his campaign team told French media. The presidential candidate shared second place in the polls with his right-wing competitors Marine Le Pen and de Valérie Pécresse a fortnight ago. In the poll of the opinion institute Ifop, all three were at 16 percent. Since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, ‘Le Z’ has fallen to 12.5 percent.
Sanctions
Earlier statements about the Russian president and his intentions have come back like a boomerang. Zemmour claimed in December that he was certain that Putin would not attack Ukraine. He condemns the raid, but is against sanctions imposed on Moscow and arms supplies to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He is also blamed for a statement from 2018, when he said that he ‘dreams of a French Putin’.
In order to remain coherent – according to Zemmour immigration is the cause of all problems in France – the candidate said that Ukrainian refugees are not welcome as far as he is concerned. At a campaign rally in Toulon on Sunday, he tried to water down that stance. The leader of Reconquete! also announced there that Marion Maréchal, the niece of Marine Le Pen, is defecting to his party. But the question is what will happen: even though she is popular among the right-wing voter, in the end it’s all about him.
macron
Emmanuel Macron continues to rise in the Ifop poll. He had a quarter of the voters behind him, but has now reached 30 percent. The French are satisfied with his actions and would rather see him negotiate in the Kremlin than Marine Le Pen.
Even though she visited the Russian president in 2017, Le Pen is not as much of a Putin fan as Zemmour. She immediately said that Ukrainians are welcome in France. Her ex-lover Louis Aliot, mayor of the southern French city of Perpignan, picked up dozens of refugees by bus at the Polish-Ukrainian border.