With or without fake noses, they seek to dynamite Western unity in the face of the destructive madness of Vladimir Poutine. Out of anti-Americanism, out of hatred for our liberal democracy, those who are nicknamed the pro-Russians and the “useful idiots” of the Kremlin are active on social networks and in political spheres. We thought they were condemned to silence since the Russian invasion, they have never been so dangerous.
Marine Le Pen shaking hands with Vladimir Poutine, all on a pretty glossy paper. It was five days after the invasion of Ukraine, on a leaflet immediately withdrawn from circulation, as revealed Release, after having been printed in 1.2 million copies. If the leadership of the National Rally (RN) has formally denied this information, the discomfort of the first French far-right party, which has been facing accusations of collusion with the Kremlin for years, was confirmed in the following months: more than a year after the start of the war, its transformation is as dizzying in declarations as it is imperceptible in action.
On one side, an angelic Jordan Bardella in the columns of Opinion on February 22, for which “moral, political and material support for Ukraine falls […] of the obvious”. On the other, RN votes in the European Parliament which, from February 24, 2022 until March 2023, showed more of a party concerned with sparing Russia. In three quarters of the cases, it voted against or abstained from voting resolutions proposing to help Ukraine (even with regard to economic or legal instruments).
How to explain this paradox ? Far-right specialist Jean-Yves Camus points to a mixture of “admiration of a large part of the sovereignist right for Russia as a repository of ‘Western values’ (family, patriotism, religion, moral values)” and a “Gaullist heritage” which some, to the right of the right, claim – Thierry Mariani in the lead.
“Putin is not an autocrat, a dictator or a dangerous madman!”
Since the start of the war, the president of the lobbying association Franco-Russian Dialogue, who has privileged relations with the president’s inner circle, including Sergei Lavrov, has been the voice of the Kremlin’s arguments. On February 22, he cheerfully commented on Vladimir Putin’s speech to the nation, according to which “they [les Occidentaux] have destroyed the family, the culture, the national identity”. Reaction of Thierry Mariani on Twitter: “On this point at least, the observation is difficult to dispute. #Soros and his foundations, the European Union’s policy to destroy Nations, and now #WokeCulture…all are in motion to undermine what has long been the foundation of our society.”
Beyond the case of Thierry Mariani, who did not wish to speak, it is the majority of the French far right who are struggling to disavow the strongman of the Kremlin – Eric Zemmour who “dreams [ait] of a French Poutine” has bitten his fingers. In the ultra-conservative media, this speech, which is often accompanied by a pacifist veneer, does not seem to weaken. In particular thanks to the assistance of the diplomatic adviser to the President of party Reconquête, the founder of the think tank Geopragma, Caroline Galactéros.
Its recipe: a rhetoric which, under the guise of moderation, euphemizes the responsibilities of the Kremlin and shows a rare indulgence with regard to Vladimir Putin. Anthology: “Putin is not an autocrat, a dictator or a dangerous madman! He is an extremely rational, reasonable and restrained man”, she defended on July 9 in the program The Incorrectables, on YouTube, “uncensored guarantee”. At Media for All, created in 2018 by a former Equality and Reconciliation (Alain Soral’s site), the geopolitical scientist conceded a few weeks earlier that she thought that “Vladimir” would be “still patient, that he would gnaw still his brake, but not that it would come to this. I underestimated the extent of the impasse in which he was put. He found himself faced with a difficult and painful choice. The following ? To listen to Caroline Galacteros, there was never any question of “invasion”: “Russia has entered Ukraine.”