The two former back to the Élysée. Emmanuel Macron received this Friday his two predecessors, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, to discuss with them the dramatic situation in Ukraine. As the fighting intensifies in Kiev, Nicolas Sarkozy displayed a serious air at the end of their exchanges.
Believing that the situation raised “legitimate concerns”, the former head of state called on everyone to “keep calm and cool”. “The time for de-escalation must come. The only possible way is diplomacy. Otherwise, it’s total war, ”developed Nicolas Sarkozy, saying he supported Emmanuel Maron’s trip to Moscow in mid-February.
According to the former president, it will “have to show imagination and creativity to create the conditions for the installation of new multilateral institutions”. “Today, nothing works anymore. NATO doesn’t work. The G7 doesn’t work. The G20, which I wanted to create, doesn’t work. And even the UN, which oscillates between apathy and immobility,” said Nicolas Sarkozy.
The former leader of the Republican right called on France to take the lead on this subject, in particular by “proposing major initiatives”. “Out of any crisis, the worst can come out. But sometimes it can come out the best. If there is audacity, determination, and the will to build peace, ”he reacted.
“A terrible ordeal”, underlines Hollande
Received just before Nicolas Sarkozy, President Hollande climbed the steps of the palace at 11 am this morning for an interview lasting several tens of minutes. “We are in a terrible ordeal, began François Hollande, who explains that he discussed with his former minister the diplomatic responses to be made in an attempt to put an end to this conflict. I had as President of the Republic to know about this heavy file of Ukraine, at the time of the Minsk agreement, ”he recalled.
For him, Vladimir Putin’s ambitions are now very clear. The Russian president intends to “dismantle Ukraine”. He would like to neutralize the country, “at the cost of a disaster for the civilian population and a conflict which will remain open for many years”.
What response should be given to what is no longer a threat, but the most serious crisis that Europe has known since the end of the Second World War? According to François Hollande, we must go much further than the sanctions that have been put on the table in the last 24 hours. “Europe, France and the Atlantic alliance must be up to it, raise the level of sanctions, especially financial sanctions, so that Russia, its economy and its leaders can be heavily hit by this response. We also need to help Ukraine,” he continued. Helping Ukraine, its population, but also its president, whose life is now in danger, wanted to warn François Hollande.
A message for presidential candidates
François Hollande does not forget the electoral context. Without naming them, he attacked the candidates who have been the most critical in recent weeks and months with NATO. With, certainly, Marine Le Pen, Éric Zemmour and Jean-Luc Mélenchon in mind. “All those who questioned the very idea of the Atlantic Alliance, the very idea of a European defense force, today must be called to account,” he said.
For the former head of the socialist state, the very personality of Vladimir Putin obliges his interlocutors to play the balance of power. According to him, this is what made it possible to wrest a ceasefire in 2014, but also the guarantee of the integrity of Ukrainian territory. “I spent days, but also nights negotiating alongside Angela Merkel and my partners, but also sometimes alone, with Vladimir Putin. We must always push the negotiation to the end but it must be done on a high balance of power. »
The former President of the Republic thinks that the French will end up feeling the consequences of this war on the economic level. He calls on presidential candidates to show realism. “We are in a period where there will be much higher inflation, levels of growth probably lower than those we could have imagined, he anticipated, while the Minister of the Economy Bruno The Mayor was rather reassuring on this point this Friday morning. The best attitude is to take this new context into account. First of all, it will be necessary to ensure that it is not always the same people who suffer from this situation. We will have to act so that the weak can be protected. Those who promise much will miss the point. »