Not to do the nipate thing and brag, but, but . . . I did call it.
Macron was a shoo-in till about a minute ago. Now he's fighting for his life! Poor guy. And he's among the more reasonable ones in the EU. Tried really hard to find an amicable solution. Even grumbled about the US escalating things just before the war started. I read Scholz, too, begged Zelensky to commit to neutrality before the war, warning things were getting really bad really fast, and Zelensky didn't care.
Repeating for the fourth time: Damn unlucky time to be up for re-election (specially in Europe!) But if this isn't resolved, it'll be even worse next year! Life will be ten times more difficult than the mild inconveniences starting to spook Europeans now (I understand in Germany,
everything at the store is already 50% to 100% over the normal price (some 200%!), in just a couple of weeks(!) not to mention the gas).
People lose their idealism really fast when life gets tough and real . . . specially ones as spoilt as modern, comfortable, welfare-nurtured, vacation-going, average Europeans. People don't appreciate how comfortable the normal European is vs the rest of the world; they are NOT the nearly 50% Americans working several jobs, no paid leave, no real vacations, etc.