Comments by Emmanuel Macron on sending troops to Ukraine: strong political reactions from the opposition in France
In France, Emmanuel Macron broke a taboo Monday evening by not excluding the sending of European soldiers to Ukraine, following a meeting organized at the Élysée.
Objective: to send a strategic signal to Vladimir Putin at a time when kyiv is in great difficulty.
A hypothesis that provokes opposition.
Listen - 01:15
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the National Assembly on February 27, 2024. AFP - STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN
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with
Pierrick Bonno
,
from the political service, at the National Assembly
It was enough to trigger a new skirmish between the National Rally and the executive.
In the hemicycle,
Marine Le Pen
, leader of the National Rally in the National Assembly, calls on the Prime Minister,
Gabriel Attal
.
“
We would have to intervene when our vital interests are not engaged.
Emmanuel Macron has taken a further step towards co-belligerence, posing an existential risk to 70 million French people
.
»
Also read: Emmanuel Macron says that sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future cannot “be ruled out”
The Prime Minister seizes the ball and responds by citing the troubled links between the far-right party and Russia.
“
There is reason to wonder whether Vladimir Putin's troops are not already in our country.
I'm talking about you and your troops, Ms. Le Pen.
»
Read alsoFrance: the RN accused of having been a “transmission belt” of Russian power
Useful clarification from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, the idea of the Head of State is simply to consider new actions to help the Ukrainians.
“
Some of these actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the belligerent threshold.
» Faced with Russia's aggressiveness, Westerners must “
consider new actions to support Ukraine
,” repeated Mr. Séjourné, referring to operations such as mine clearance, cyber or “
weapons production ( ...) on the territory of Ukraine
.”
Clearly, France would not go to fight, but would simply send men to support the Ukrainian forces.
After Emmanuel Macron's remarks on Monday, the first to react during the night from Monday to Tuesday was the leader of France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Already hostile to military support for Ukraine, he considered that “
war against Russia would be madness
”.
“
This bellicose verbal escalation of a nuclear power against another major nuclear power is already an irresponsible act
,” protested the former presidential candidate on X.
For the Insoumis (LFI) Bastien Lachaud, member of the Defense committee of the Assembly, “
It is not possible that there will be a French intervention in Ukraine, that would be a de facto declaration of war between France and Russia.
» The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, also commented on President Macron's remarks during a hearing before the Defense Committee of the National Assembly.
“
It is clear that there is no question of waging war against Russia
,” he insisted.
But “
to say that we exclude nothing is neither to be weak, nor to be escalatory (...) or to consider that Russia must win
”, commented Mr. Lecornu.
The Élysée announced the upcoming organization of a debate with a vote in the Assembly on the
security agreement concluded with Ukraine
on February 16.
Enough to accentuate the divisions less than a hundred days from the Europeans.
Also listen France-Ukraine bilateral security agreement: “It is economic, military and European integration aid”
(and with agencies)
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