By Trend

The results of the first round of the presidential election in France, questions addressed to the candidates during the debates before the first and second rounds, and the answers to these questions proved once again the non-significance of global processes for the country's citizens and the absence of any interest in the "Armenian issue" among them, Azerbaijani expert Elchin Mirzabayli told Trend.

According to Mirzabayli, the absolute majority of the promises made in the election campaigns in both the first and second rounds of the election regard social problems, which indicates that these problems in France have reached a critical level in recent years.

"The main problem of voters in France now is the rapid rise in food prices and forecasts about their inaccessibility to middle and poor segments of the population," he said. "Given this factor, provision of the population with food ranks in the first place among the promises on the social sphere made by the incumbent president and at the same time presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron."

"As part of the election campaign, Macron told the France Bleu television channel that food stamps could be introduced due to the rising prices. Macron noted that in case of his re-election, he plans to develop and implement a "food stamp program" to protect the poor and middle classes from rising food prices and a new crisis," the expert further said.

He noted that according to the results of pre-election polls in France and according to experts, voters are concerned about such issues as a decrease in the level and quality of life of the population, religious and ethnic contradictions, an increase in the number of offenses, crime, problems with migrants and the demographic situation, issues of social infrastructure.

According to him, the "Armenian issue" hasn’t been mentioned among these problems, which indicates that the Armenians living in France are only used by the political authorities as an insignificant geopolitical pretext if such a need arises.

Mirzabayli also noted that the election campaign has shown that the possibilities of the influence of the Armenian lobby in France have significantly decreased and have no significance for the country. In this context, the hopes of the Armenians regarding Anne Hidalgo and Valerie Pecresse, the candidates for the presidency of France, weren’t justified.

As the expert pointed out, this proves that talks about a "strong" Armenian lobby have nothing to do with reality, just like the "history" of Armenia, consisting of myths and legends.

The Armenian lobby, in fact, has influence only at the municipal level, but in reality, its capabilities are quite low, he said.

According to Mirzabayli, the analysis of the comments in the Armenian press and the noticeable points in the mainline of the ongoing propaganda has shown that the political leadership of Armenia, the Armenian diaspora and the lobby didn’t expect Macron to reach the second round.

"In fact, the participation of Armenians in the election campaign of these candidates was not particularly noticeable, and in the election marathon of Macron, they were not noted at all," the expert noted.

According to him, Armenians most likely believed that Marine Le Pen and Pecresse or Hidalgo would compete in the second round.

“As for Macron, he most likely won’t be able to continue to pay much attention to the “Armenian issue”, given the concern of his voters with internal social problems, as well as the weakness and unscrupulousness of the Armenian lobby,” added Mirzabayli.