Russia won a moral victory in France – media
Summing up the results of the first round of the presidential elections in France, the winners of which were Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, we can say that traditional political forces - left and center-right - are experiencing, if not collapse, then a serious internal crisis, writes Kommersant.
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“The official candidates from the Socialist Party and from the right-wing “Republicans” (Benoit Hamon and François Fillon) received a total of just over 25% of the votes. For comparison: in the previous presidential elections in 2012, candidates from the socialists and the right (François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy) received almost 56% between them in the first round,” the publication notes.
In addition, the newspaper points out, French fatigue with traditional parties has led to an unprecedented surge in the popularity of non-system and even anti-system candidates.
“The ultra-right Marine Le Pen and the ultra-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon (a fan of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro) between them collected more than 40% of the votes. The voters of Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Mélenchon were not embarrassed by their radical and hardly implementable slogans - for example, hints at a possible exit from the EU and the euro zone. To a large extent, Sunday’s vote turned out to be a protest - by supporting unsystematic politicians, the French are showing to what extent traditional politicians irritate them today,” Kommersant continues.
“Thirdly, the paradoxical result of the first round of elections is that three of the four leaders, who received a total of more than 60% of the votes, are in favor of rapprochement with Russia, in favor of easing (or even canceling) the sanctions imposed against it. At this point, the seemingly incompatible ultra-right Marine Le Pen, the ultra-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the right-wing, systemic politician, ex-Prime Minister Francois Fillon, came together. However, this “moral victory” for Moscow, apparently, will have no practical consequences. Emmanuel Macron, who has reached the second round (who, according to all forecasts, will win the final victory), promises to support a “united European approach” regarding sanctions and is unlikely to advocate their mitigation,” the publication believes.
At the same time, Sergei Utkin, head of the strategic assessment sector at IMEMO RAS, told Kommersant that Macron will be forced to seek support from the leading traditional parties in France, but at the same time, “the French political environment, without breaking away from the European mainstream, is still much less critical of Russia than a number of other EU countries.”
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