New Foreign Minister Stephane Sejournet travels to Kyiv

“Action, action, action”… Stéphane Sejournet obviously heard the instructions given this Thursday evening by Gabriel Attal in the 8 o’clock news broadcast on TF 1 and, in fact, repeated this Friday at the end of the morning by the President of the Republic to the Council of Ministers. The new leader of the Quai d’Orsay has just departed with a stopover in Poland, from where he will board an overnight train to Ukraine at 8:30 p.m., which has become routine for Western leaders visiting Kiev.

The program includes two meetings. On Saturday morning, Stéphane Sejournet will speak with Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. Then in the afternoon he will be received by President-Commander Vladimir Zelensky.

First symbolic trip

This trip has symbolic significance in the eyes of the new head of French diplomacy. “We want to immediately confirm our support and commitment of France and Europe towards Ukraine,” explain those around him. For Emmanuel Macron, supporting Ukraine is a priority. He also believes that the European Parliament elections will be partly decided on this topic. He himself may go there in the coming weeks.

A trip to Kyiv was on Ekaterina Colonna’s agenda this Saturday… She will not have the opportunity to attend the meeting until her replacement. That Sejournet is being held back and going to Kyiv “has been seen with the president,” a close friend of the minister tells us, “his role is to position himself in the style of Antony Blinken.” (US Secretary of State). Stéphane Sejournet will be a practical foreign minister.” This is a characteristic feature of the Attal government 1: the meaning of political communication is no longer optional.