Donald Trump’s operation against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro on the night of 2 to 3 January provides a convenient insight into the links and sympathies maintained by the deposed dictator with left-wing parties around the world. On this occasion, information that came to light a few years ago has resurfaced: one of Emmanuel Macron’s closest advisers was involved in Maduro’s campaign in 2013.
In 2016, L’Express magazine investigated Ismaël Emelien, Macron’s right-hand man. The investigation, which went relatively unnoticed at the time, was republished in 2019, when Emelien resigned from his position with the president of the republic. It revealed that Macron’s adviser and close collaborator had been involved in Maduro’s election in 2013, alongside Gilles Finchelstein, director of studies at the communications consultancy Havas, one of the oldest and most prestigious communications agencies in France.
The investigative newspaper Mediapart also looked into Emelien’s case in 2017, at a time when Macron was criticising the links between his left-wing opponent, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the Venezuelan regime. Emelien confirmed that he had travelled to Venezuela and devoted himself to this mission “about one day a week for three months.” His colleague, Finchelstein, explained that he had worked alongside him “thinking about the strategic positioning of Maduro’s campaign.”
The mission entrusted to Havas began when Hugo Chávez’s death was looming and his succession was being prepared. In addition to Emelien, the mission employed no fewer than 30 people to provide “a comprehensive service including the production of advertising spots, a documentary, the organisation and design of meetings, social media and consulting.”
Emelien later explained to L’Express that he had been mistaken about Maduro. “We thought Maduro was a true reformist. During the campaign, we realised that this was not the case.” The fact remains that considerable human resources were allocated to help one dictator succeed another.
These revelations, which have resurfaced today, testify to the troubled relations maintained by part of the French Left—including Macron himself through his personal adviser, despite his ‘centrist’ position—with the Venezuelan dictatorship. Emelien was one of Macron’s closest collaborators, awarded the title of ‘special adviser’ at the Élysée Palace after being one of the architects of the ‘En Marche!’ movement that supported Macron’s election in 2017.
On Sunday, January 4th, a protest against Maduro’s arrest was held at Place de la République in Paris, bringing together around a thousand people at the behest of left-wing parties. Several leftist figures expressed their outrage at Macron’s official statement, accusing him of giving Trump ill-advised support with his words: “The Venezuelan people are now free of Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship and can just rejoice.” Mélenchon, president of La France Insoumise (LFI), described Maduro’s arrest as “an odious kidnapping.”
Mélenchon was also an unconditional admirer of Hugo Chávez, whom he praised upon his death with these words: “What Chávez is never dies; it is the inexhaustible ideal of the humanist hope of revolution.” In 2019, he supported Maduro, who had been re-elected under suspicious circumstances a year earlier.
Among the participants in the demonstration, there is a preference for remaining cautious in describing the fallen regime and focusing attacks on Trump, described by a Colombian refugee activist interviewed by France Info as a “true dictator.”
