Macron asks to leave open the way of negotiations with Moscow – Pierre Haski

It is not easy to make detailed proposals as Russian missiles crash on Ukrainian cities without distinguishing between civilian and military targets. French President Emmanuel Macron tried to do so on the evening of 12 October, in an interview granted to the public broadcaster France2. Macron has tried to go down an extremely narrow road, keeping away from controversial statements after pronouncing twice, during the summer, the phrase “we must not humiliate Russia”, which earned him criticism from Kiev and the countries of the Eastern Europe.

At a time when the brutal escalation that emerged in the conflict after October 10 radicalizes positions, the French president asks to continue talking with Vladimir Putin as long as necessary, stressing that “one day, as soon as possible, we will have to return to sit around the negotiating table “.

That time has not yet arrived and in all likelihood the war will continue throughout the winter. But where some Europeans dream of an unconditional capitulation of the Russian aggressor, Macron re-proposes his old conviction: Russia will remain Europe’s neighbor even after this war and the conditions for a subsequent war must not be created. This moderate stance is controversial.

Position measured
The first reflex that the horrors we witness arouse is to neutralize the author. Ukrainians would rather see Putin before the International Criminal Court than sitting at the negotiating table.

But Macron’s idea, the same that led him to maintain an intense, however vain dialogue with Putin for five years, is that Russia will inevitably have to be included in a hypothetical European security architecture.

In the meantime, however, there is war, and Macron resorts to his famous measured position which in France they define with the expression “en même temps” (at the same time) and which in this case means helping Ukraine by preparing a postwar that includes Russia. In any case, the French president reiterates that it is up to the Ukrainians to decide their war objectives and to choose when to negotiate.

France will continue to help Kiev, for example by providing six additional Caesar cannons, performing weapons to which the Ukrainian army dedicated a declaration of love on video on 12 October, to the tune of a song by Serge Gainsbourg

The French position will make some in Europe turn up their noses, even if Paris has no intention of renouncing Western solidarity in order to defend its point of view. On the contrary, France has just announced an increased military presence in Romania, Estonia and Lithuania, as well as additional aid to Ukraine.

Part of Macron’s answers is also addressed to French public opinion in view of a dangerous winter.

But why did the president want to declare for the first time that France would not react with its nuclear force to a Russian atomic attack in Ukraine, especially after explaining that we shouldn’t talk too much about the nuclear issue? Who was this message intended for?

It is imperative that the president explain to the French again this war in which they have found themselves engaged without fighting it. The public opinion front is one of the implications of this conflict.

(Translation by Andrea Sparacino)