Although the war in Ukraine heavily influenced the 2022 presidential election, international issues rarely play a decisive role in French election campaigns. It remains unclear which topics will dominate debates in the seven months leading up to the first round of the 2027 presidential election. But with polls measuring a significant lead for Marine Le Pen, her opponents have increasingly focused on geopolitics, convinced it is the principal weakness of her far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party, long accused of admiring Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

As President Emmanuel Macron invited presidential candidates and party leaders to the Elysée Palace for a meeting on the "rapid deterioration of the international situation" on Friday, September 18, the candidate of his Renaissance party, Gabriel Attal, traveled to Reims on Thursday to call in a speech for "genuine federalism" and the creation of a "United States of Europe" built around a "core group" of eight to 10 countries. Reviving a phrase dating back to Victor Hugo, which had fallen out of use in a France troubled by the rise of the far right, the former prime minister defended the necessity of this "achievable dream" in the face of the "old nightmare of Frexit."