the Elysée announces a debate and a vote planned in Parliament

Parliament will debate the situation in Ukraine. The Elysée announced, Tuesday February 27, that a debate and a vote would take place in Parliament on the question of support for Kiev, the day after statements by Emmanuel Macron castigated by the oppositions, because they did not exclude the hypothesis of a sending of Western troops to Ukraine. In a press release, the presidency announced that the head of state had asked the government to make a declaration before Parliament “relating to the bilateral security agreement concluded with Ukraine” on February 16, followed by a debate and a vote.

This security agreement “establishes our long-term support for Ukraine to defeat Russia’s war of aggression”, recalls the Elysée, which does not specify the date of the parliamentary debate, decided under article 50-1 of the Constitution. This announcement comes the day after criticized statements by Emmanuel Macron. At the end of an international conference in support of Ukraine in Paris, the head of state affirmed that “nothing should be excluded”regarding sending troops to help kyiv fight against the Russian invasion.

Highly criticized comments

These declarations were strongly criticized by the opposition, from La France insoumise to the National Rally, who demanded a debate in Parliament before the publication of the Elysée press release. Several of France’s European allies have also rejected the idea of ​​deploying soldiers to Ukraine. First to draw, the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, already hostile to military support for Ukraine, estimated that “war against Russia would be madness”. On the far right, regularly accused by the majority of having been close to Vladimir Putin, Marine Le Pen criticized Emmanuel Macron for “play warlord” while “it’s the lives of our children that he talks about with such carelessness”.