Opposition leaders left the Élysée very skeptical on Thursday at midday, after the meeting called by Emmanuel Macron on the situation in Ukraine.
The day after his controversial declaration on a possible sending of ground troops to reinforce Kiev, the head of state wanted to receive the leaders of the parties represented in Parliament "
in Saint-Denis format
" to take stock of the conflict and explain your point of view to them.
Far from withdrawing, the President of the Republic would have, on the contrary, confirmed to them that he did not intend to set “
no limits
” or “
no red lines
” to the support of France, according to comments reported by the communist Fabien Roussel (PCF ) and lepenist Jordan Bardella (RN).
According to Emmanuel Macron's reasoning, as summarized by the head of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier, “
the fact of setting limits ourselves
” would give “
a comparative advantage
” to Vladimir Putin.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the Élysée did not respond at this time.
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While the broad outlines of the agreement plan on French support for Ukraine will be the subject of a debate followed by a non-binding vote in Parliament at the beginning of next week - Tuesday in the Assembly, Wednesday in the Senate -, the oppositions took aim at Emmanuel Macron.
“
I very sincerely wonder about the usefulness of this meeting
,” fumed Éric Ciotti (LR) as he left the Palace.
Not much came out that was very concrete, very new
.”
Jordan Bardella, for his part, criticized the “
go to war
” positions of the head of state.
The nationalist also judged “
perfectly irresponsible
” the recent exit of Gabriel Attal, who saw fit to assimilate the National Rally to the “
troops
” of Moscow.
A statement that the party perceives as a comparison “
to a foreign occupying army
”.
Hollande and Sarkozy received on Wednesday
On Wednesday evening, ahead of this expanded format meeting, Emmanuel Macron successively received his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the subject one-on-one with them.
“
My position on military issues is
: the less we say, the better we act
,” François Hollande publicly attacked him at the end of their exchange.
Don't say what you do, but do what you haven't said.
This is what allows for the most efficiency
,” he added.
The former socialist president, who recalled having “
met a lot
” with Vladimir Putin during his mandate (2012-2017), underlined the importance of “the
broadest consensus for support for Ukraine
” to “
make people think
” the master of the Kremlin.
“
He was always in this search for the balance of power, he wants to impress, so the only possible response is to show that we are with the Ukrainians in total solidarity, that we give them all the necessary support, without us- even participate in any combat whatsoever
,” he said.
Nicolas Sarkozy did not respond to the press after leaving his interview with Emmanuel Macron.