You don’t have to be living in France to understand there’s a lot at stake in April’s presidential election: The global climate crisis is deepening, the country’s role on the international stage is under question, its welfare model is under pressure, and the shifting political winds in Berlin suggest there may even be a window of opportunity to nudge the European Union in a more progressive direction. Looming over it all, by the way, is a pandemic.

In an alternative time line, the 2022 presidential campaign would be focusing on some of these issues. How does France aim to rein in the fossil fuel industry? How should it position itself as the new Cold War heats up? How can the state protect the safety net and redistribute wealth as Europe’s austerity hawks begin to circle?

That is not the campaign underway.