French President Francois Hollande is under fire from politicians over how he has tackled Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Syria crisis, with some saying there has been a rush to a “Cold War” against an essential European partner.
French officials have grown increasingly angry over Russian-backed Syrian government attacks on rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo, Syria.
Things came to a head this week when Hollande refused to roll out the red carpet for Putin on a planned visit to Paris next week, demanding instead that the trip be restricted to talks on Syria, where he said Moscow was carrying out war crimes.
Photo: AFP
Putin declined those terms and canceled the trip, prompting Hollande’s opponents with an eye to next year’s presidential election to break the usual French bipartisan consensus on foreign policy.
“The duty of France and Europe is that Russia, France and Europe talk. I have disagreements with Putin, but how do you find a solution if you don’t talk?” said former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who hopes to win the Les Republicains party ticket for April’s presidential election. “How do you solve a crisis only through communiques, shunning each other or entering a new Cold War? It’s irresponsible.”
Sarkozy’s comments looked like an opportunistic way to attack Hollande’s relatively positive foreign policy achievements of the past four years — one of the few areas where he has not faced criticism at home.
Sarkozy compared the outgoing president’s actions with his own record — the negotiation with Putin of a peaceful resolution to a crisis in Georgia in 2008.
Former French prime minister Francois Fillon, another vying to be a presidential candidate, said Hollande had been “ridiculed” and had “discredited” French foreign policy by refusing to receive Putin at the inauguration of a Russian Orthodox church overlooking the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The stance on Hollande’s intransigence is in stark contrast to Britain, where the government this week urged an even tougher approach to Moscow in light of daily bombings in Aleppo.
This could of course be largely electioneering. However, within the French foreign policy establishment, some diplomats and politicians also accuse Hollande of pursuing a “neo-conservative” agenda and thus weakening Europe as a whole.
They accuse the French leadership of doing the US’ bidding in an era when Washington has pulled back from overseas adventures. They yearn for the days of former French president Charles de Gaulle, who withdrew France from NATO’s military structure in 1966 to underline Paris’ sovereignty and independence.
Their approach has also found favor among an increasingly isolationist and populist electorate shocked by terrorist attacks on French soil and by the refugee crisis.
So while foreign policy does not usually affect an election debate much, the Syria crisis and its impact on Franco-Russia relations are a special case.
“Francois Hollande’s attitude is unbearable. We are completely aligned to the United States. We are running ahead and that attitude is not in the interests of France,” said Jean-Luc Melenchon, a presidential candidate who is credited with about 10 percent of the national vote.
He described Hollande’s accusations of Russian war crimes in Syria as “chitchat.”
Putin also stimulates a certain fascination among the French, who believe he incarnates an authority that stands up to Washington, but also, in the current climate, an iron fist in the fight against militancy.
An IFOP poll taken just after Russia began airstrikes in September last year, showed that 25 percent of French had a favorable opinion of Putin.
That figure increased to 37 percent among those who back the National Front, whose leader, Marine Le Pen, is widely expected to reach the runoff stage in the presidential election.
Le Pen has said she admires Putin and believes France should seek an alliance with him and the Syrian government to fight militants.
“France’s role is diplomacy and that means speaking to all powers, nations and making our voice heard,” her campaign director David Rachline said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese