The right-wing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen wants to end cooperation with Germany in the field of defense if she wins the elections.
Germany presents itself as the complete antithesis of France's strategic identity, Le Pen said in Paris on Wednesday.
"Because of these fundamental differences, which are strategic, incompatible divergences, we will end all cooperation with Berlin." Le Pen said they wanted to focus more on their own projects. She had previously stated that Germany criticized French arms exports and not them as an extension of foreign policy.
She accused her adversary, French President Emmanuel Macron, of being blind to Berlin.
She doesn't want to follow that.
Macron and Le Pen finished in the top two places in the first round of the French presidential election and will face each other in a run-off on April 24.
Le Pen isn't calling for an exit from the EU
Le Pen also explained how she wanted to completely redesign French foreign policy.
Instead of cooperation in international organizations, she wants to focus primarily on bilateral cooperation.
Under the motto of more independence, Le Pen does not want to place French troops under foreign command and wants to withdraw from the NATO command structure.
At the same time, she spoke out in favor of bringing the defense alliance closer to Russia for the post-war period in Ukraine.
She rejected France's exit from the European Union, as she had called for in 2017.
She wants to modernize Europe from within.
Possibly in an attempt to win votes, Le Pen named Lebanon as one of her future priorities.
She also spoke at length about her view of future diplomatic relations with Algeria.
At the heart of her vision of French foreign policy, Le Pen saw France's national interests.