“From beginning to end, Marine Le Pen showed her true face”. In the aftermath of the debate between the two rounds of the presidential election between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the very serious and respected German daily Die Zeit did not hesitate to take sides, openly speaking out in favor of a victory for Emmanuel Macron on April 24. An opinion reflecting the general state of mind of Germany, and in particular that of the government of Olaf Scholz, in business for barely five months and anxious to keep a precious ally in a difficult time for the European Union.
For the first time, therefore, a German head of government has taken an open position in a French presidential campaign. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has, in fact, in a column published in the newspaper The world, Thursday, and co-written with his Spanish and Portuguese counterparts, considered that Marine Le Pen was “openly attacking our freedom and our democracy”, when Emmanuel Macron believed in him “in a stronger France in the European Union”. A defeat of the outgoing president makes Germany fear the end of a long period of reconciliation and then of cooperation which allowed the consolidation of the European project. And with a weakened Europe, Germany knows it would be too.
Spain and Portugal vote Macron, Hungary supports Le Pen
The Spanish and Portuguese Social Democratic Chancellors, Pedro Sanchez and Antonio da Costa, joined the German Chancellor in expressing their support for Emmanuel Macron, judging that they needed a France that defends “our common values, in a Europe in which we recognize ourselves, free and open to the world, sovereign, strong and generous at the same time”, before concluding that it was “this France too which is on the ballot of April 24”.
Militant for the establishment of an “alliance of nations”, Marine Le Pen can count on the support of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose European populism she appreciates. Re-elected on April 3 for the fourth consecutive time, the Hungarian leader had, from February 5, “wished Marine Le Pen good luck” in a video posted on social networks. Denouncing immigration as “an attack on our families” and “the feverish dream of a federal Europe”, he described the candidate of the National Rally as a “great experienced warrior”. The Italian leader of the Northern League, Matteo Salvini, a long-time friend of Marine Le Pen, is his other strong supporter in Europe.
Weighty personalities, Navalny and Lula lean towards Macron
Elsewhere in the world, other very influential foreign personalities also give their opinion on this disputed presidential election in France. The famous Russian opponent in the Kremlin, Alexei Navalny, from his prison, via Twitter, declared that it was “without hesitation, no”, that he called on the French to vote for Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the presidential election. Navalny considers himself “shocked” by the loan of 9 million euros contracted in 2014 by Marine Le Pen with a Russian bank. An element on which Emmanuel Macron also strongly supported during the debate between the two rounds.
In Brazil, it was the former, and still popular, President Lula who gave his support to the outgoing president, believing that he best embodied “democratic and humanist values”. “It is fundamental to defeat the far right and its message of hatred and prejudice, this is what all democrats around the world desire and hope for,” he wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday.
For his part, in an interview with BFM TV on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited Marine Le Pen to admit that she was “mistaken about Russia” and wished not to “lose” her relations with Emmanuel Macron, without calling on the French to vote for him. “I’m not convinced that I have the right today to influence what happens at home,” he cautiously admitted.