French President Emmanuel Macron told the opposition this Sunday that there are “no limits” or “red lines” to French support for Ukraine, reaffirming a position seen in the West as irresponsible and which Moscow has already condemned.
The French head of state explained that “it is necessary to support Ukraine ‘at all costs'”, according to Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the far-left France Insubmissa (LFI) party, who expressed his concerns.
“The President of the Republic is ready for unlimited and, apparently, persistent support for Ukraine” and “there are no restrictions or red lines,” Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Union (RN) party, emphasized.
Emmanuel Macron has put Ukraine at the center of the national political debate as he said on February 26 that the deployment of ground troops in Ukraine should not be “ruled out” in the name of “strategic ambiguity” and that everything would be done to ensure that Vladimir Putin’s Russia loses the war.
Given this position, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed this Sunday that the French president “continues to increase the level of direct French participation” in the conflict in Ukraine.
In a video published on Telegram by a Russian journalist, Peskov emphasized the contradictory statements made in Paris on this issue since Emmanuel Macron’s first speech on February 26.
Other countries in Europe and North America have so far largely distanced themselves from France’s position, but Emmanuel Macron, who last week organized an international conference in support of military support for Ukraine, believes it is necessary to regain the initiative vis-à-vis the Russians.
Twenty-eight countries are participating this afternoon in a new video conference monitoring meeting on support for Ukraine, organized by France to do more to defeat Russia.
In France, opposition parties from left to right reject any deployment of troops.
Many believe President Macron has weakened France’s position and played into Moscow’s hands by exposing European divisions.
The French head of state called for a debate in parliament, followed by a non-binding vote on Tuesday in the National Assembly and then on Wednesday in the Senate, which will focus on the bilateral security agreement signed on February 16 between Paris and Kiev. . The discussions promise to be heated.
The French leader, however, takes his stand and considers this a “moment of truth”, causing a split in the unanimity that was seen again last summer regarding support for Kyiv.
The government’s target is RN, which is leading polls in the June 9 European elections with between 28 and 30% of voting intentions, which it accuses of complacency towards Moscow.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal recently assessed that there are reasons to “doubt that Vladimir Putin’s troops [já não estão]in France, in particular, against Marine Le Pen, the leader of the RN party in parliament, a finalist in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections and who positions herself as her faction’s “natural candidate” for 2027.
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu accused “most” of the RN and LFI of being representatives of Putin’s Russia.