Paris (AFP)

An "inert" France, a "doormat" president: several politicians on Thursday judged Emmanuel Macron's response to Joe Biden insufficient or even non-existent the day after a meeting between the two leaders in the midst of the diplomatic crisis of the submarines.

The day before, the leader of the Insoumis and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon had denounced a "capitulation".

The leader of RN Marine le Pen, also a candidate, had joked about the defense of the "pride" of France by Emmanuel Macron.

The American president and his French counterpart agreed Wednesday in a joint statement to meet again at the end of October and to restore "confidence" between their two countries after this crisis which could have been avoided by "open consultations" upstream.

Thus the French ambassador to the United States, Philippe Etienne, will return to Washington next week.

"France can not be a little boy on the luggage rack of the United States that we throw in the ditch when we do not need it", reacted Thursday on Franceinfo the presidential candidate and ex -Socialist Minister Arnaud Montebourg.

"We cannot remain inert and we must make the Americans pay the political price for this betrayal", he wished: "there are no acts, there is today a silence and a complicity ", he accused, calling now to" place on the table as a national debate "the question of the presence of France in the integrated command of NATO.

For the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel, Emmanuel Macron "shows extreme naivety and he chooses that France remains a country aligned behind the United States", he lamented on Public Senate, in l 'urging them to speak out publicly on this matter.

On the right, the boss of deputies LR Damien Abad considers the exchange between the two presidents as "a useful and necessary conversation but which cannot be sufficient".

"What we need now are concrete actions to show that the United States considers France to the rank it deserves," he said on RFI.

Damien Abad (LR) on September 9, 2021 in Nîmes Pascal GUYOT AFP / Archives

The sovereignist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, president of Debout la France, lamented that "after the humiliation and the rout, Emmanuel Macron (is) already in + reconciliation +".

"Doormat leader who prefers his alignment with foreign interests than to defend his Nation," he said on Twitter.

© 2021 AFP