(Paris) French President Emmanuel Macron places Ukraine at the center of the national political debate on Thursday by bringing together party leaders, after raising the possibility of a military presence on the ground which has highlighted class divisions political, three months before the European elections.
“It’s a moment of truth,” argues the head of state’s entourage, evoking cracks in the “unanimity” noted again last summer on support for Kyiv.
After speaking on Wednesday with his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, Emmanuel Macron presented Thursday to the leaders of the political groups represented in Parliament the results of the international conference of military support for Ukraine organized last week in Paris.
A bilateral security agreement signed on February 16 between Paris and Kyiv will then be the subject of a debate, followed by a non-binding vote, Tuesday in the National Assembly, then Wednesday in the Senate.
“I think it will clarify” the positions, Emmanuel Macron told a few journalists on Tuesday on the sidelines of a trip to Prague.
In the crosshairs is the far-right National Rally (RN) party, which is leading the polls for the European elections on June 9, credited with 28 to 30% of voting intentions.
The French executive has come down hard in recent days on the RN led by its young president Jordan Bardella, whose party is regularly accused of complacency vis-à-vis Moscow.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal thus estimated at the end of February that there was reason “to wonder if Vladimir Putin’s troops (were) not already” in France, specifically targeting Marine Le Pen, the head of the RN group at the Assembly, finalist in the presidential elections of 2017 and 2022 and who presents himself as the “natural candidate” of his camp for that of 2027.
French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu judged last week that “a large part” of the National Rally (RN) and the radical left party France Insoumise (LFI) were “proxies” – relays of influence – of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
“Don’t let the nationalists in. They were already at war. They are now defeated by Russia,” Emmanuel Macron ordered his ministers.
Shake up allies
The debate in Parliament promises to be heated not on the subject of the bilateral security agreement, on which the vote formally concerns, but because of recent presidential declarations on France’s military options in Ukraine.
On February 26, the French president considered that the sending, in the future, of Western troops to Ukraine should not “be excluded”, in order to make it clear to Vladimir Putin that everything would be done to ensure that he loses this war .
Madness for the oppositions, from LFI to the RN, including the Socialist Party and the right-wing party Les Républicains, who denounced “irresponsible” remarks, even if the executive assures that such a scenario is not recorded. and would only concern support missions for Ukrainian troops, far from the fighting.
The Europeans and Americans have almost all publicly distanced themselves from this position, but Emmanuel Macron does not budge, deeming it “necessary” to shake up his allies to regain the “initiative” against the Russians.
A new videoconference meeting devoted to support for Ukraine is to be held on Thursday in the presence of around thirty countries.
The oppositions, from the left as well as the right, intend to remind the Élysée of their fierce disapproval of any sending of troops, many believing that the French president has weakened the French position and is playing into the hands of Moscow by displaying European divisions.
Some criticize the use of a serious international issue for presumed political purposes: “How can we not see a fatal trap for Emmanuel Macron’s opponents when criticizing today the warlike adventurism of the head of state amounts to taking the risk of being transformed into an agent of the Kremlin? », asked the JDD, a very right-wing newspaper.