The leader of Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, interviewed by Franceinfo on the recent statements of his ally in Italy Matteo Salvini regarding Putin's re-election, underlined that Russia is not democratic.
"Salvini says that when a people votes they are always right, do you agree with the leader of the League?", was the journalist's question.
"This is the rule of democracy, he defines democracy in this way. Is Russia a democratic regime now? Obviously not", replied Bardella, stating that in Russia there were no conditions for free elections.
"Putin is in this very self-centered incarnation of power, in what he has called the vertical of power since 2000", Marine Le Pen's right-hand man further observed, later saying he was in line with the positions taken by the French Foreign Ministry led by Stéphane Sejourné, among the loyalists of the president, Emmanuel Macron.
"I think that the position held by French diplomacy is right. Not necessarily to congratulate Putin's election but to take note of it because he is the representative of the Russian Federation and if there were to be negotiations tomorrow they will obviously be held with Putin", concluded Bardella.
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