The vote may have been symbolic, but it was highly scrutinized, and not only in France.
This Tuesday, March 12 in the evening, after more than two and a half hours of an electric debate, the deputies largely approved the bilateral security agreement signed on February 16 between Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Thus, 372 deputies voted for, 99 against (the LFI and communist groups) and 101 abstained (including the RN group).
Two years after the start of the Russian invasion, the Macronists insisted on this non-binding vote to force Rassemblement national and Insoumis to publicly assume their positions, attracting in return accusations of “instrumentalization”, three months before elections European elections which promise to be delicate for the presidential camp.
“There is a difference between military support and cobelligerence”
From the outset, speaking in a sparse hemicycle, the Prime Minister also targeted his two political adversaries.
“To abstain is to evade one's responsibilities in the face of history,” said Gabriel Attal in the direction of the RN.
“To vote against is to give Vladimir Putin all the arguments and a signal that he is waiting for,” he addressed to the rebels.
Evoking “a tipping point” in the conflict, the tenant of Matignon warned of the risks, today “concrete” and “tangible”, of a victory for Russia, evoking “a cataclysm” on the power of 'purchase.
“The French would live less well with more expensive food, more expensive energy, increasing insecurity,” Gabriel Attal further warned.
Before reiterating France's full support for the Ukrainians: "We do not set limits against Russia, which does not set any limits."
VIDEO.
Ukraine: a victory for Moscow would have “concrete risks” for the French, insists Attal
But the Prime Minister nevertheless took care to clarify that “there is a difference between military support and co-belligerence”.
A direct allusion to the accusations of the oppositions following the declarations of Emmanuel Macron, on February 26, who had not ruled out the possibility of sending ground troops to Ukraine.
It is also on this theme that Marine Le Pen fired her sharpest arrows, attacking “the warlike announcements” of the President of the Republic, before accusing the government of confronting the opposition with “an unworthy choice” in an “electoralist” goal: “Either we are pro Macron, or we are accused of being pro Putin.
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“What Ukraine needs is not adventurous words from the President of the Republic, but shells”
Speaking for the LFI group, MP Arnaud Le Gall explained that he refused "to sign a blank check after the head of state's irresponsible war declarations", calling for a diplomatic solution and rejecting the prospect of Ukraine joining the European Union and NATO.
Same vote against from the communists, who, through the voice of Fabien Roussel, rejected an agreement “which draws no red line, gives no prospect of peace” and “could precipitate our country into war”.
Also read “We are all for peace, but…”: the left is torn apart (again) over the security agreement with Ukraine
Unsurprisingly, the left showed its divisions on the subject, since the socialist and environmentalist groups conversely voted in favor.
“We, ecologists, do not compromise with the freedom of people to decide for themselves,” underlined the group's boss Cyrielle Chatelain.
“It is, in this tragic moment, essential to say to the Ukrainians who are suffering:
You are family
,” judged the boss of the PS group Boris Vallaud, while urging the executive to “do more and faster » for Ukraine.
A request also relayed by the president of the LR group Olivier Marleix, who voted for support for kyiv.
“What Ukraine needs to defend itself is not adventurous words from the President of the Republic, but shells,” he summed up.
The Head of State plans to speak on Thursday evening on Ukraine on “20 Heures” on TF1 and France 2.