OPINION
Macron to Putin: Let’s be friends
The French president’s ongoing outreach is yet to bear
fruit, but it may yet provide an electoral boost.
BY ROBERT
ZARETSKY
February 4,
2022 4:43 am
Robert
Zaretsky is a professor of French history at the University of Houston. His
latest book is “The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-to-putin-lets-be-friends/
In the summer
of 2017, shortly after he was elected president of France, Emmanuel Macron
welcomed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the palace of Versailles. It
was the first of several meetings between the two men, encounters in which the
French president has sought to bind the Russian leader closer to Europe —
ultimately without much to show for his efforts.
Last week,
the latest iteration of this dialogue culminated in an anticlimactic call
between Macron and Putin, even as Russian soldiers and equipment massed on the
border with Ukraine. By all accounts, the conversation was — as much of their
interchanges have been — a dialogue of the deaf.
Macron
insisted on the inviolable integrity of Ukraine’s borders. Putin replied that
Europe was ignoring Russia’s legitimate national security concerns. All they
could agree upon, according to official sources, was the need to continue
talking.
As
president, Macron has eagerly embraced the so-called régalien powers — those of
national defense and foreign policy — that come with his five-year stay in the
Elysée Palace. What better stage than Europe — and indeed the globe — to
exercise what Macron had described, in somewhat unfortunate phrasing, as the
“Jupiterian” powers of his office?
That Putin
was the first world leader to enter Jupiter’s orbit was not accidental. In
“Révolution,” Macron’s 2017 campaign book, he underscored the importance of
maintaining a dialogue with Putin, despite the latter’s recent incursions into
Ukraine: “It would be a mistake to break ties with this eastern European power
[over Crimea] rather than forming a lasting relationship.”
With
Versailles as a backdrop to their first meeting, a symbol of France’s former
imperial greatness on the 300th anniversary of Peter the Great’s visit to the
palace, Macron believed he could remind Putin of his hero’s attachment to
Europe — and, especially, France. Peter the Great, he declared, “symbolizes the
Russia that, opening up to Europe, was inspired by everything great and strong
there.”
Two years
later, in 2019, Macron again hosted Putin, this time at his official retreat of
Brégançon on the Riviera. At their joint press conference, Macron echoed former
President Charles de Gaulle’s declaration that Europe extended from the
Atlantic to the Urals by affirming his belief in a “Europe that goes from
Lisbon to Vladivostok.”
More
strikingly, he also announced his ambition to create a “new architecture for
security” for Europe — presumably one apart from the existing architecture of
NATO. The surprise created by this announcement had not yet subsided when, a
week later, Macron made clear in a speech to his diplomatic corps that he would
brook no dissent from a “deep state” in his pursuit of this new strategy.
Another two
years later occurred perhaps the oddest episode in Macron’s dialogue with
Putin: On July 13, 2021, a Russian plane landed in Paris with the body of the
18th-century French general Charles Étienne Gudin, who had died during
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Not only was the passenger dead on
arrival, so too was the reason for his trip.
The return
of Gudin’s remains — unearthed from under a night club in Smolensk — had been
put in motion by presidential aides, and Macron was convinced that a grand
ceremony with Putin in attendance would strengthen diplomatic ties between the
two countries. But his plans were derailed by the Kremlin’s attempted
assassination of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
So far,
Macron’s outreach has not borne fruit. Yet much to the confusion and
consternation of seasoned observers, he has kept talking with Putin even after
Russian interference in France’s 2017 elections, as well as Moscow’s apparent
role in the recent political upheaval in Mali. He has also continued his charm
offensive despite Putin’s assertion that the Kremlin’s treatment of political
opponents was no worse than the French government’s treatment of yellow vest
protestors — a provocation amplified by French cable channels Russia Today and
Sputnik.
As the
diplomat Michel Duclos remarked, “The more that dialogue does not lead to
substantial results . . . the more the president insists on the necessity of
dialogue.”
But
Macron’s latest diplomatic salvo may have an ulterior motive, which comes as he
gets ready to seek reelection in April. His efforts now are addressed not only
to the audience of one in Russia, but to the audience of many in France.
Through his
pursuit of Putin, Macron is pursuing a place on the European stage, and the
stars might just be aligning in his favor. What remains to be seen is whether
he can turn the prospect of talks to his electoral advantage — or whether
Jupiter’s gravitational force will fall short, and yet another Russian snub
will reveal his statesmanship as ineffective at just the wrong moment.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário