It is an understatement to say that this war took the French weekly press by surprise, largely overwhelmed, and by the lightning deterioration of the political climate in this crisis, and by the irresistible progression of the Russian army in Ukraine which is followed. As the formula The Sunday newspaperit was “ the week when everything changed “.
The new mission of the Russian army, ordered in recent hours by Moscow, being extended to all the Ukrainian fronts, only the weekend weeklies have had time to hoist this ” turning of History on their front page.
That of the newspaper The Parisian Sunday is devoted to the plight of refugees ” like a ” the great anguish of the French “. Because after the coronavirus epidemic, “ Vladimir Putin plunges us into an even more disturbing reality », sighs The Parisian Sunday.
Echoing his colleagues, The Sunday newspaper asks himself “ how far will Putin go? “. Reporting a “ New “Meeting of European Foreign Ministers scheduled for Sunday evening” to discuss new sanctions in case of continuation of the Russian offensive on Kiev “, without prejudice to a ” New » meeting of the United Nations Security Council, The JDD notes that France has decided to freeze the financial assets of several Russian personalities, the “ Alone “Emmanuel Macron’s objective being to obtain an unconditional Russian ceasefire, “ which may require further travel to Moscow and Kiev “says this weekly.
So everything went very quickly, and if Paris Match publishes a photo of a Russian tank penetrating the eastern region of Donbass, the article that accompanies this illustration is largely out of step with the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.
No sacred union against Putin
However, in the comments of the French press, the time is not for sacred union. Witness the weekly Marianne, who does not hesitate to side with Moscow’s arguments. Being reminded that this magazine belongs to a Czech billionaire, will some see a shareholder influence? Will others recall his taste for truth and the freedom of his editorial line? Still, on reading its fevered editorial, one measures the risk, clearly assumed by this weekly, of appearing to espouse the Russian point of view.
After noting that this war is being played out in Europe “without the Europeans”, Marianne remarks first that this war had been there “for many years, in sporadic form”.
Marianne, then, does not have enough harsh words for NATO. Among other examples of the derivative of this Atlanticist security organization which, in another article, this magazine calls ” fake noses of americans », this weekly cites the 2011 operation in Libya.
What does it have to do with the war in Ukraine? Rewinding the film, this newspaper first describes the Libyan operation as “ illegitimate “. Because according to Mariannethe ” excuses » provided by « lthe usual great consciences will never be able to hide the reality, which is that “NATO has caused chaos in Libya, of which Africa and Europe are still suffering the consequences. Worse, it was NATO’s failure to respect the mandate given by the UN – which stipulated that it was a question of preventing the massacre of Misrata but certainly not of overthrowing Gaddafi – which convinced Vladimir Putin not to never accept this kind of operation again. Russia had not vetoed the intervention in Libya, it will systematically oppose any intervention in Syria”, recalls this newspaper. CQFD.
To make matters worse, the affairs of Joe Biden’s son only demonstrate, as the Russian president puts it a little brutally, that “Ukraine is an American colony” », lumberjack Marianne. Weekly according to which “ the only solution for Ukraine would have been “finlandization”, a neutral status guaranteeing that it would not fall into one camp or the other “.