March 15, 2024 (EIRNS)—For France’s President Emmanuel Macron, it seems that, recently, every day is a bad day.
For several weeks, he has refused every opportunity to walk back his call for putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine. Interviewed yesterday on France 2 and TF1 TV channels, he once again refused to rule out the possibility of NATO deployments into Ukraine,and reiterated that France is ready to make any “decisions necessary to prevent Russia’s victory.” Further, he made clear that negotiations with Russia for peace was not possible, as Russia lacked a leader who is “sincere and peace-oriented”—but he looked forward to the day when there was such a Russian President, “whoever it might be.”
The new survey by broadcaster BFMTV shows that 57% of French respondents think that Macron was “wrong” to “raise his voice against Russia” with recent remarks about deploying troops to Ukraine and calls to provide more support to Kiev. RT reports that, according to the poll of 1,005 French residents aged 18 or older over March 12-13, the majority of French citizens believe Macron’s remarks not only increase tension between France and Russia, but also isolate France from its Western allies. The survey also showed that most French people (54%) believe France should help Ukraine, on the condition that it not get “too far involved” in the conflict nor risk direct confrontation with Russia, “even if it means a defeat for Ukraine.” Some 21% of respondents said Ukraine should be left to fight its battles on its own, without outside help. Finally, Macron’s security pact signed last month with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with €3 billion in military aid this year, is opposed by just over half of the respondents. RT adds that approval for sending the aid strongly correlated with respondents’ financial circumstances, with 62% approval among the wealthiest, and only 34% among the poorest.
Of note, after Macron made clear that there could be no negotiations with Russia, and when the interviewer asked whether the U.S., under a President Donald Trump, might be able to mediate such talks, Macron simply put on his prognosticator hat: “As far as I’m informed, I don’t think Donald Trump will become President of the United States.”
The recently elected British MP George Galloway provided [an apt summary](https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1768372385567113263 ): “Macron has lost his mind. There can be no other explanation for the leader of a state whupped by Burkina Faso declaring a state of war with Russia.”
