Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak to French parliamentarians on Wednesday March 23 from 3 p.m. before an intervention before NATO on Thursday to ask for help against the Russian invasion. Valéria Faure-Muntian, LREM MP for the 3rd constituency of the Loire and originally from Ukraine, qualifies this upcoming speech on franceinfo as“a historic moment”.
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franceinfo: What do you expect from Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the National Assembly and the Senate?
Valeria Faure-Muntian: It is something exceptional. Presidents who spoke in the hemicycle, there are not many. According to the Constitution, the French president, for example, does not enter the hemicycle of the National Assembly. The only time he can convene Parliament is in Congress, under other conditions, it’s something very regulated. This is a historic moment for Volodymyr Zelensky, but also for us, the French parliamentarians. It is addressed through us to public opinion and to the French population that we represent in order to mobilize it and to instil in it the difficulties that Ukraine is going through today, and its demands.
Do you expect, for example, additional pressure on the issue of arms deliveries?
It is not useful to put pressure. I think that would be counterproductive. Now, indeed, he can raise awareness of requests he has already made to the French government and the European Union. Sanctions, the 27 [États membres de l’Union européenne] validated them very quickly, they increase as the conflict gets bogged down or the civilian populations do not have access to evacuation or humanitarian aid. Deliveries of military aid and humanitarian aid by the European Union have been made on a regular basis since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Can this speech by Volodymyr Zelensky before the French Parliament provoke a moment of harmony, despite the proximity of the presidential election?
I find that this moment of harmony, we had it from the start, as soon as the war was started. There is a fairly strong national solidarity, our fellow citizens did not make a difference, according to their political opinions. They all mobilized. I find that it is necessary to make the difference between the presidential candidates and the mobilization of our fellow citizens. Indeed, presidential candidates have opinions, but they are people who do not necessarily convey the truth. They have their truth, they have their opinion. The French are completely in solidarity with Ukraine, by mobilizing for humanitarian aid and for the reception of refugees.
You yourself left Ukraine at 14 to arrive in Besançon. How to welcome Ukrainians today?
Uprooting is always traumatic, even if it is done under good conditions. It is useful to accompany these refugees. They are traumatized by the war on their territory and by the unknown, on the one hand of the country where they arrive, and on the other, of their capacity and when they will be able to return to Ukraine. We must stabilize them as soon as possible, allow them to anchor themselves on French territory, give them benchmarks. Medical and psychological follow-up is always useful in these specific cases. It is especially necessary to organize their presence on the territory, but also the maintenance with the culture and the language of origin, in particular for the children. We are immediately in the French bath, if only when we start the administrative procedures. We must support them, organize French integration, and maintain the link with the culture of origin.
You chair the friendship group between France and Ukraine, and you are also a member of the friendship group between France and Russia: isn’t that acrobatic?
From 2017, we made a choice not to import the Ukrainian conflict and Russian aggression on French soil, to work well from a diplomatic point of view. Let’s not fall into this trap. Above all, let us demonstrate to the representatives of the two countries that in France, we dialogue and we try to move towards diplomacy. We must banish and strongly denounce all types of violence [envers des Russes ou Français d’origine russe] because not all Russians are Putin and Putin is not all Russians.