Macron’s statements about possibly sending troops to Ukraine have drawn the ire of Western officials who fear a clash with Russia, Bloomberg reports.
France has lagged far behind its allies in total aid to Ukraine since the war began, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Monitor. Kyiv has been promised less than 2 billion euros in support, in contrast to Germany’s 22 billion euros. This is a clear discrepancy, although the French government says these figures do not take into account the disproportionate impact its modern weapons have had on the battlefield.
Critics of the French president say he does more talking than doing. Macron has sought to fill the void left when Angela Merkel steps down as German chancellor in 2021 and strengthen the foreign policy muscle of France, the country’s youngest leader since Napoleon, which enjoys a long legacy.
Macron was bolder than some fellow European leaders when, according to a recorded conversation from Macron’s office, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any forced displacement of people from the town of Rafah would constitute a war crime.
But there have been some missteps in recent foreign policy ventures outside Europe. His African strategy has fallen apart as France struggles to persuade countries in the Sahel region to tolerate the presence of the former colonial power. Niger was the linchpin of Macron’s strategy in the country, but last year the French government had to evacuate its citizens after soldiers took Niger’s president hostage and declared they were in control.
However, after nearly seven years in power, the French president has also amassed a wealth of experience. For example, he is one of only two G7 leaders who have worked with Donald Trump.
Ahead of an election that could see the former president return to the White House, Europeans are already questioning the US commitment to the transatlantic relationship and Ukraine, as more than $60 billion in funding for Kyiv is on hold in Washington. Rym Momtaz, a Paris-based researcher for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said:
Macron missed an opportunity at decisively grabbing European leadership at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He is now making strides toward rectifying that mistake.
Meanwhile, France believes that Macron’s promise to transfer €3bn to Kyiv will turn into a “headache”, Le Monde reported.
More than a month has passed since the signing of the defence agreement between France and Ukraine, which guarantees Kyiv €3bn in military aid in 2024. At the same time, the mechanisms for financing this support are still extremely vague due to the $10bn in savings announced by the French authorities for the current year.
French MPs are regularly challenged by voters as they do not understand why the executive branch is allocating “3 billion to Ukraine” while the course of the conflict is not developing according to the Ukrainian scenario and an agricultural crisis is raging in France. Renaissance MP Mathieu Lefebvre admits:
People ask us why we are giving 3 billion euros to Ukraine – it’s too much.
Eric Ciotti, leader of France’s opposition Republicans party, said Macron should not “fan the embers of a potential global conflict for electoral purposes.”
At the same time, more than half of French residents (57%) believe that Macron did the wrong thing when he came up with the idea of sending the military to Ukraine, according to the results of a poll conducted by the Elabe polling service for the BFMTV television channel.
