In a month the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, He will be measured again at the polls to defend his political project, while candidates of various tendencies want to replace him in the Elysée Palace.
However, the polls show that everything would be defined between the tendency of the center (in this case it falls into it), the right and the extreme right.
The most likely to cause problems is the conservative Valerie PecresseHowever, all the polls indicate that in the first round (April 10) Macron would go first and in the second round (April 24) he would beat anyone. Following her would be the far-right candidates: Marine Le Pen – whom Macron defeated in the second round of 2017 – and Éric Zemmour.
Macron would thus be the first president to be re-elected since Jacques Chirac, in 2002.
For Regis Dandoy, Professor of Political Science and European Studies at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, this election has few differences with the previous one. One is that the acting president (Francoise Hollande) was not a candidate, now he is. Another would be the change in the party system, since Macron arrived with a new one (Republic on the Move, centrist) and changed the weights, greatly weakening the Socialist Party (social democratic line) and defeating the divided right and extreme right.
Dandoy recalls that Macron is a European liberal who comes from the center-left, since he was Hollande’s economy minister and at that time he was seen as someone who was on the right within the left. That is why, when he started his centrist project, he took away a good part of the politicians and the socialist votes.
Thinking about why a figure who could compete for the presidential sash has not appeared, Dandoy comments that he managed to prevent the appearance of candidates who could oppose his project, focusing the debate not on the democratic forces but on the extremist candidates, making it very difficult for other actors to the left or the right to stand out in the political landscape. He has also been lucky that the two main parties, the Socialist and the Republican (centre-right), are very divided.
“There were difficulties, as with every president, but he had a good presidency and the opposition parties were unable to find the magic recipe to win, in addition to being between opposing Macron and his party and collaborating with them to be able to share a little bit of the can. Then Macron’s strategy in the fight against extremists can be explained in order to polarize the debate and take advantage of the structural weakness of his main competitors on the left and right, ”says Dandoy.
Currently France, despite the pandemic, has kept its economy stable and is the second force in this area in the European Union (EU) after Germany. However, in the military field it is the first force in the bloc and the only one of the 27 with its own atomic bombs and with veto power in the United Nations Security Council.
Also, the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU meant that the dominant axis in the block is only two (Paris and Berlin), further increasing the degree of importance of France in the block and in its internal and external policies, leaving it in a position better than five years ago.
This, coupled with Macron’s intention to improve France’s image and influence in Europe and the world, unlike his two predecessors, has earned him a lot of attention and support.
Michel Levi, coordinator of the Andean Center for International Studies and the Jean Monnet European Studies Module –considered one of the “fathers of Europe”–, says that we must not forget that France is one of the leading powers in the world.
Levi comments that the election in France is something very important in international politics and is linked to everything, even to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, since Macron is the president who maintains direct contact with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to deal with to look for options while supporting several of the EU sanctions.
“France at the level of industry, of production of goods and services, of everything, is a world power. There are many people who think that Russia is a power in decline, but no, it is even more powerful than Russia globally. On that side there is no doubt that it is a country that has a very strong capacity to influence many countries in the world. Even in the United States they can make a lot of jokes about France, but it is a country that they respect a lot,” says Levi, who classifies Macron as a moderate liberal, which allows him to have a pragmatic vision on economic issues and his relationship with social management, something important in a very protectionist country towards the social sectors.
Levi adds that on the subject of the France-Latin America relationship, in the period that ends Macron has only come once for a G20 summit, unlike other French leaders –Francoise Mitterrand (1981-1995) was the one who promoted the most those relationships. However, several presidents of the region have visited him in Paris to close agreements and generate synergies. Having him as an ally is always a plus point.
“Everybody sees it. France is, after the United States, the country that has the most embassies in the world… The current Secretary of State (like a chancellor) of the United States, Antony Blinken, was trained in France,” says Levi, who believes also that for the US it can sometimes be a headache because France will never agree with their ideas as they would like, but the French will always influence the promotion of balances of power, motivated by Cartesian thinking.
In short, whoever occupies the Elysee continues to be a key player in international relations. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
