Emmanuel Macron judged that “verbal escalation” was not going to “help Ukraine” and could lead Westerners to intervene, Thursday April 14 on France Bleu. Thus, the LREM candidate refused to use the word genocide against Vladimir Putin. He said he spoke in the morning with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who on Wednesday had found “very hurtful” his refusal to denounce “genocide” in his country. The two heads of state were to speak again at the end of the day, he said.
“The word genocide has a meaning” and “must be qualified by jurists, not by politicians”, declared Emmanuel Macron, on a campaign trip to Le Havre (Seine-Maritime). According to him, “the States which consider that it is a genocide must by the international conventions to intervene. Is this what people want? I don’t think so”, because it would be “to become co-belligerent” of the conflict. “Everyone must know how to keep reason, it’s not helping Ukraine […] than to go into verbal escalation without drawing all the consequences, ”he warned.
“Work to restore peace and protect our compatriots from war”
“I keep the same line of action: to do everything to stop this war, to be at the side of the Ukrainians, to continue to have the measures of solidarity and to work to find peace and protect our compatriots from the war”, he said. concluded on the radio. Several leaders, including US President Joe Biden, accuse Vladimir Putin of carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine, a position welcomed by kyiv. But, in addition to Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres have refrained from using this term. “Genocide is strictly defined in international law. And at the UN, we rely on the legal determination of the appropriate judicial bodies,” Antonio Guterres said.
