The decision to withdraw French troops from Mali to redeploy them in other countries in the region such as Niger has provoked many reactions from political leaders, and in the first place from candidates for the succession of Emmanuel Macron.
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Starting with Valérie Pécresse: on LCP, the candidate Les Républicains expressed her wish that the French forces remain in the Sahel. “I think we have to stay in the Sahel. If we abandon this land, then our soldiers will probably have died for nothing. And that, I will not admit”. The general staff of the armies has confirmed that 2,500 to 3,000 French soldiers will remain well deployed after their withdrawal from Mali in about six months.
Christian Cambon, Senator Les Républicains, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee, welcomed “a common sense decision”because “we cannot allow a country in which we have intervened to treat and humiliate us in this way”. France and its European partners are going to redeploy in the Sahelian region. “We are moving towards a completely different organization with much lighter bases and more maneuverability of all our forces”he explained.
Another reaction, that of Marine Le Pen, candidate of the National Rally: “It’s a form of smokescreen. The real question now is how do we leave, what resources are we making available to the army to be able to leave in optimal security conditions?” No reaction for the moment from Éric Zemmour.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the tone is more of a tribute. This is the case of Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, on France 2: “First, I want to pay tribute to the 57 French people who fell on Malian soil and who defended our values, freedom, in the Sahel.” Among the ecologists, we react in a press release which speaks of “inevitable decision”. Yannick Jadot reaffirms that the solution for peace can only be military and requires diplomacy.
Among the insoumis of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the words are much stronger: Clémentine Autain, deputy La France insoumise, evokes an immense mess, without strategic visibility. “We have to get out of this Françafrique logic. We cannot continue to believe that we are settling, we are leaving, we are relocating, without any long-term strategic aim.” The same term “Françafrique” is also used by the communist candidate Fabien Roussel. One position is in any case unanimous: that France retains a military presence.