A united front, against.
Emmanuel Macron welcomed party leaders this Thursday to discuss behind closed doors the conflict in Ukraine and the strategy he intends to implement with kyiv.
He again encountered strong opposition, if not disapproval, from them a week after saying that the idea of sending troops into the field could "not be ruled out."
The President of the Republic explained to them that there were "no limits", "no red lines" to France's support for Ukraine, at war against Russia, reported the leaders of the PCF and the RN Fabien Roussel and Jordan Bardella leaving the Élysée.
The president of the far-right party assured that he had pleaded during this nearly three-hour meeting for “France not to go to war itself with Russia”, criticizing “go-go positions”. -war” and also castigating the comments of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal who, according to him, compared the RN to “a foreign occupation army”.
“I don’t want to tell you stories, I come out with more concerns,” reacted the coordinator of France Insoumise, Manuel Bompard, for whom “the President of the Republic does not seem to take the measure of the risk that would run stubbornly in this military path.”
“I reaffirmed Republican support for Ukraine.
I reiterated the irresponsible and dangerous nature of sending ground troops,” explained on European”.
I have just left the Élysée.
I reaffirmed Republican support for Ukraine.
I reiterated the irresponsible and dangerous nature of sending ground troops.
I also told the President of the Republic that it would be unacceptable to exploit the Ukrainian conflict…
— Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) March 7, 2024
According to the head of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier, the head of state explained to political leaders that, “as we had Vladimir Putin in front of us, who clearly has no limits”, to “set it for ourselves”, “ internalizing limits” would be “giving it a comparative advantage”.
It is “extremely worrying”, she added, to want to “show that we are limitless” to “someone who has nuclear weapons”.
Also read: Troops in Ukraine: what is the “belligerence threshold”, which should not be crossed to avoid dragging France into the war?
Before the interview, the head of the socialists Olivier Faure had criticized the head of state for having offered “unprecedented clarity” to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the fact “that none” of the Western countries which oppose the war and support Kiev “does not want to commit ground troops”.
“It’s really a problem of amateurism at this stage,” added Tondelier.
The president, who promised to visit Ukraine before mid-March, met on Wednesday at the Élysée with his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
The French strategy will then be the subject of a debate, followed by a vote, in Parliament - Tuesday in the National Assembly, then Wednesday in the Senate.