Even if it can have direct consequences on the population, permanent indignation to the misfortunes of the world should not condition an election and even less become the only program of certain candidates for the supreme function in France. However, what are Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his deputies, or the resurrected Dominique de Villepin, apart from Gaza and international law? It was nothing. This is the drama of Europe that has spent its time, for years, taking care of the rest of the world rather than protecting your own interests above all.
However, if multilateralism must be defended certainly more than ever in an unstable world, it is actually the youngest of the concerns of French voters, who have many other emergencies on the carpet: this is called in journalism, the principle of kilometric death. Ukraine, Afghanistan or Gaza being far from the American continent, the citizens of the United States are actually not interested in it. Out of the question of spending more money to settle these crises.
When the international ouste the National
We can find it irresponsible, but there is a certain logic in reasoning, which Donald Trump was able to use to return to the White House. But why then in France, some people are only talking about Gaza, forgetting Sudan or Burma, to do the fight against Israeli politics (completely extremist, but how to do otherwise with Hamas?), To make their way and become the providential men of our sick democracies? Why do some seek to make Gaza the matrix of all conflicts, beyond the number of Jews and Muslims in France giving a large echo?
We were lulled too close to the American wall
Geopolitics is not solely responsible for our current situation. Admittedly, Trump and his policy have a direct impact on the economy that will affect the French, but it is because above all for years, we have been lulled too close to the American wall for us, without ever projecting ourselves into the maximum power of real total independence towards them. Delocations, industrializations, exports, free trade have caused part of our loss and it is not only the “others” that are responsible for it. And being obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian question to divert attention will not change anything.
However, some imported the conflict to forget everything else. Their argument is simple: Gaza would even be a symptom of all the misfortunes in the world. Gaza is Gaza, France is France! Ditto with Ukraine, even if the question of security and the proximity of the conflict with Europe can worry more than one. The day the conflict arrives in the institutional borders of the Union, there will always be time to wake up.
The daily newspaper of the French put aside
If geopolitics is largely invited into the program of our future political leaders, it is not the decisive factor in the decision -making of voters. However, candidates cling to a certain vision of the world, often forgetting the priority that their country must be, to sell ideals and “Law-de-l’Homme” which only interests the people at the bottom. Purchasing power, unemployment, insecurity, daily violence, the health system, education, illegal immigration, go to the last plan, with a ghost government led by an equally transparent Prime Minister. In the meantime, each week, they are demonstrations, media interventions to speak of the Middle East and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. And political leaders who continue to veil their face by speaking more international than internal!
The Donald Trump case is quite symptomatic of what our European leaders should have favored for years: Europe rather than the rest of the world. The 47e President was elected by the Americans, to defend American interests and nothing but American interests, even if it means offending, upsetting, depressing and abandoning the rest of the world, starting with the old continent. Trump is criticized for conviction that what he does is good for Americans (even if it can be discussed). What does the French president do with regard to trying to save the world, precisely because he no longer has any national credibility?
Trump does not care about the rest of the world, our leaders should do the same …
What does the European Commission do to try to protect Europeans now threatened by American taxes, when it should sign all the agreements around the world to try to preserve its economy? No, in the meantime, she continues to pour money to the left to the right in the world, her head in the bag, while waiting for the storm to pass.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon returns from a tour in America, to address Donald Trump directly, but is it not all ridiculous? Dominique de Villepin caracole at the head of the favorite political figures of the French because he protests on a daily basis against Israeli politics, but what program would he have for France? Trump does not care about the rest of the world, our leaders should partially do the same to meet the real needs of their voters.
*Sébastien Boussois, Doctor of Political Science, Arab and Geopolitical World Researcher, teacher in international relations at IHECS (Brussels), associated with CNAM Paris (Defense Security Team), at the Institute of Applied Geopolitics Studies (IEGA Paris), to the Nordic Center for Conflict Transformation (NCCT Stockholm) and at the Geostrategic Observatory in Geneva (Switzerland).
