In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon takes stock of Emmanuel Macron’s strategy for the war in Ukraine with Corentin Pennarearear, from the World service of L’Express.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Margaux Lannuzel (writing), Charlotte Baris (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Credits: BFM, France 24, Le Monde, TF1
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Ludovic Marin/AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
How to listen to a podcast? Follow the leader.
Corentin Pennarcar : We are not February 23, 2023 but February 24, 2022. I am a journalist for the World service of L’Express and I am taking you to the Elysée Palace.
We are at the beginning of the afternoon, it is 4 p.m. Emmanuel Macron’s phone rings. This is Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. The two men have known each other for a long time, before Zelensky came to power. They have a relationship of trust.
The first bombs have been falling on Ukraine since early morning, and Macron is the first head of state that Zelensky calls. “Emmanuel, they are in our streets, we are fighting in our streets.” He describes the tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who cross the borders, the hundreds of men released in the suburbs of kyiv.
At the other end of the line, Macron is powerless. He is reduced to asking his Ukrainian counterpart if he has a place to go to safety. Just in case, France is one of the last countries to have kept its embassy open in kyiv, to serve as a refuge for Zelensky and his teams “if things went wrong”. And this scene is the starting point of a particularly busy diplomatic year for Emmanuel Macron.
Xavier Yvon : Yes, I gave the floor directly to our guest of the day, without even telling you. But I assure you, you are in the present, in 2023. A few hours from the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine. On this occasion, La Loupe invites you to retrace a year of French diplomacy in the face of this conflict.
This is a story that interests me for two reasons. The first is that all the decisions were made where the scene Corentin has just told you about took place, at the Elysée Palace. We are therefore going to spend a year in Emmanuel Macron’s head, from his friendship with Volodymyr Zelensky to his bond with Vladimir Putin, maintained longer than any other European leader.
And the second is that this year is just a starting point. You will hear it, the French strategy is part of the time: sow small pebbles to win Ukraine. While securing a crucial place at the table where peace will be negotiated.
For further
PODCAST. War in Ukraine: will Leopard 2 tanks be a game-changer?
War in Ukraine: “We are ready for a prolonged conflict”, says Macron
Zelensky, the exclusive interview: “One day or another, Ukraine will recover Crimea”
“If Russia had won…”: the worst-case scenario we avoided, by Anne Applebaum