Bombs rain down on Ukraine and the French presidential election takes on a whole new dimension. Two camps clash, there too, and in particular on the left where, for lack of electoral hope, we continue to settle our ideological scores. Thus, Jean-Luc Mélenchon must now explain his complacency with regard to Vladimir Putin’s Russia which, today, is waging war in Europe. A long-standing ideological drift, believes Anne Hidalgo, the fruit of “her anti-American obsession”. “The masks are falling,” says the socialist candidate, who believes that the rebel in chief is not the future of the left, any more than of France.
L’Express: A few days ago, Vladimir Putin decided to put the Russian “deterrent force” on alert, which includes the nuclear component in particular. Is it a communication stunt, a bluff, or should we expect further escalation?
Anne Hidalgo: This threat must be taken very seriously, just as this war in Europe must be taken more than seriously. All the decisions that have been taken so far show that Europe is united, that it takes the measure of this event which is changing the history of our continent. It’s a pivotal moment. This must be the start of a new stage: common European defence.
The evolution of the German and Swedish positions will make it possible to accelerate the step towards a Europe of defense, with armies which cooperate. France must take more than its share, it must play a leading role. Questioning this idea and questioning the Atlantic Alliance were major mistakes. From now on, Vladimir Putin is desperate, he did not expect such a unanimous reaction from Europeans, public opinion, the international community… This is the kind of thing that marks dictators.
Are you afraid that with this war in Europe, the presidential campaign will be completely vitrified, frozen, and that we will stop there?
This campaign has already been impacted since its inception. It does not take place, to tell the truth. We started in the midst of the Covid crisis, with restrictive measures that had repercussions on public debate. Until then, it took place on television sets and rarely under the conditions necessary to fuel a serene debate. The six months we have just spent, since October, have been difficult. There is a shared fault of the media, the polling institutes, the online information sites which let believe what would be the state of mind of the French, that they would be obsessed by the question of immigration. All of this is false.
Today, this war situation in Europe will have repercussions on the campaign and give it a new dimension. We cannot pretend and step over this presidential election, because, for five years, we had a president who did not take climate and social issues seriously. The French must know that if they vote again for Emmanuel Macron, they will have retirement after 65 years, less public services and still no salary increase. It is the assurance of new inequalities. And there can be no prosperity and peace with such a level of inequality.
Because of this conflict and the ever-increasing threats from Vladimir Putin, don’t you think the French are concerned about things other than pensions?
They will always look at the person who is able to carry the ideas and programs that will make it possible to live better. The French women and men see these candidates, on the extreme right in particular, who have praised Putin to the skies. It was Marine Le Pen’s 2017 campaign that was guaranteed by a Russian bank. There is also Eric Zemmour, who would not hesitate to embrace the desires of a dictator like Putin, he has said, written and repeated. The French will be able to see who is able to have the stature to face the events of the present and prepare our country for the challenges of the future.
And there is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who took the same line as Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, complacent with regard to the Russian regime. Were you surprised?
No, because, for a long time, he has been in this ideological drift. He became Vladimir Putin’s ally and supporter. It was he who said that Putin was a hero for Syria, alongside Bashar al-Assad. It was he who supported the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, which fired live ammunition at its people. The French do not want a man who has only two concerns: the death of the PS – which, however, fed him well – and his anti-American obsession.
I defend the rule of law, multilateralism, the free determination of peoples, Europe and our allies. This war in Ukraine shows the true face of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Who can imagine waking up one morning with a President of the Republic who transforms the aggressors into the attacked, with a leader of the left like him? We would then be the vassals of China and Russia. He is a populist, he is not the left, at least not the republican left, aware that we cannot live outside a world where international law is respected.
“I am not of this left which varies according to the squalls of the weather.”
Do you put him in the same basket as Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen?
They are far right and he is far left. All three are populists and, like good populists, they turned their backs on the Ukrainian question, because they saw that people weren’t following them. The reality is that they were agents who served Putin’s interests rather than those of France, trying to mitigate what the Russian regime was preparing against Europe and our democratic models.
And when I see that François Bayrou, in the name of democracy, gives his sponsorship to Marine Le Pen… I tell myself that he has lost his compass! The nationalism of Mélenchon, Le Pen and Zemmour is war. My compass points the way: there are dictators on one side; and on the other, democracies.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 noted that the flagrant inequalities of the pre-war period pushed the lower classes and the middle classes to turn to authoritarian regimes, aided by powerful interests who explained to them that the democracies were weak. A very good report by the OECD, published in 2019, explains very well how the rise of populism in the world is correlated with the increase in social inequalities. This is why I propose a balanced social and ecological model which must correct these inequalities. This also requires a consolidation of our democratic system which no longer breathes because it is in the hands of a single man.
Who can imagine any union of the left when there are such fractures, cardinal, with someone like Jean-Luc Mélenchon?
The different families of the left were already clashing on these subjects, but they managed, at a given moment, to live in a space that regulated. This space is the Socialist Party. The PS was the gathering place for the lefts. With what happened in 2017, since the explosion of the left, it is much more difficult. The important thing now is clarity.
Very early in 2021, I told Yannick Jadot, who wanted it, that there was no point in telling Jean-Luc Mélenchon to come to our meetings. The left of Jaurès, the one which led François Mitterrand to power, which allowed the great advances on Europe and on international law, is not his.
Yes, the left has made mistakes and no doubt it is so disappointing because it holds such ideals… But are we really going to punish ourselves by giving the keys to this liberal right, which risks creating conflicts? social services because it wants to privatize public services? Are we going to punish ourselves by voting useful for a populist such as Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who defeats the left of his republican and European principles, incapable of seriousness and solidity to face the challenges of the world? This story of the useful vote for Mélenchon to save the left has lived, because the masks are falling.
The useful vote, is it you?
I am of this viscerally European and republican left. I carry universalist values, I defend the right to self-determination of peoples. I am of this essential left to resolve social crises. I am not of this left which varies according to the storms of time, which thinks that the policy is a spectacle which must liven up on the plates of talk-show and which awaits only the buzz. Politics is history, the long term, projection and loyalty to values.