Turnout in the French legislative runoff elections remains at record levels: according to data from the Ministry of the Interior, At 5pm 59.71% voted of those entitled to vote, compared to 59.39% at the same time a week ago. Meanwhile, the French legislative runoff is being followed with great attention in Moscowwho was counting on the full success of the Lepenists to undermine the West’s unity in its support for Kiev. It is no coincidence that on the very day of the vote, Sergei Lavrov sent a message that amounts to an endorsement for the Rassemblement National: “The second round was designed to manipulate the will of the voters”said the head of Russian diplomacy, lashing out against the maxi-agreement of desistance signed by the gauche and the Macronians. Marine Le Pen herself, on the eve of the consultation, had stated that France’s position on the conflict in Ukraine would change, and not a little, with her dolphin Jordan Bardella in Matignon. Starting from two key choices: Paris’ veto on Kiev’s use of French weapons to strike in Russian territory and the clear refusal to consider sending soldiers from beyond the Alps to Ukraine.
A disavowal of the line evoked by Emmanuel Macron, opposed in truth also by the majority of NATO partners. Russia, during this brief electoral campaign, has not failed to provide more or less direct support to RN. Just a few days ago, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Moscow greeted the clear victory of the droite in the first round with a tweet, accompanied by a photo of Marine Le Pen, in which it underlined that “the French people are looking for a sovereign foreign policy that serves their national interests and not the dictates of Washington and Brussels”. The Kremlin’s bet is aimed at the entire galaxy of sovereignist parties in the EU (of which the ideal leader is the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbàn, current president of the semester and just received by Vladimir Putin) that speak to that part of European public opinion tired of war. In this light, the rebirth in France of the so-called republican front, destined to block the road to the Rassemblement National in Parliament, is a cause for concern for Moscow. “This doesn’t look much like democracy,” Lavrov said venomously as polls opened.