Yesterday, France’s sitting President Emmanuel Macron defeated challenger Marine Le Pen for a second time, and this is good news. Not only for France, but for the world as well.
This French referendum is more important than ever since the Russian ogre has awakened and is ravenous for more real estate. To be more accurate, it is more gluttony than hunger, since Russia is already the largest country in the world. It needs more land like I need a mega-yacht… The only powers that can stop Putin are the United States AND a united NATO.
If Le Pen would have won, NATO would have been weakened and Ukraine could possibly be lost. And if Ukraine falls, it will make Putin more belligerent. You cannot appease a tyrant with concessions. Just remember the Munich Agreement of 1938. The Sudetenland was just an appetizer for Adolf Hitler.
It is no secret that Marine le Pen intended to withdraw France from NATO and thus would have considerably weakened this crucial alliance. As an admirer of (and financed by) Putin, Le Pen would not hesitate to side with the person that she admires.
When a single man manages to take over a country and muzzles its press and its citizenry, that country is in trouble. Russia has already adopted a martial law policy, and its citizens are afraid to voice a negative opinion about the war “special military operation” in Ukraine. A still short war that has already made an inordinate number of victims, civilians, and combatants alike.
Stopping Russia in Ukraine is now as important as defeating the Nazi hordes during WWII. The fragile equilibrium existing between the Russian Federation and Western Europe must be maintained at all costs. Showing weakness would only embolden the aggressor to continue its rampage.
Emmanuel Macron is not somebody to be venerated, but he seems to be an intelligent, reasonable man… a middle-roader willing to improve the lot of his compatriots. And he has no desire to remain president for life through rigged elections… He will stay for 5 more years and leave quietly in 2027, as any civilized person would do.
It is for those reasons that I voted for Emmanuel Macron, and that I wish him the best in the years to come. To maintain a fragile World Peace, Putin must be defeated (best from within) and Macron (definitely not Le Pen) will help to achieve this goal.
Alain