“We are sovereign. » Friday, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, responded on X (formerly Twitter) to Jean-Luc Mélenchon regarding the command of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle.
Friday morning, the leader of La France insoumise published a message deploring a “vassalization” of France. “The aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle comes under NATO command. Sadness. Vassalization displayed,” he wrote. During a meeting of the presidential campaign in 2022, the LFI candidate had already proposed leaving NATO, “a useless organization which causes tensions almost everywhere through its agitation, hoping to extract subsidies here and there for I do not know which agency,” pleading instead for “alter-globalization” alliances.
The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, responded to him on the same social network. “We must not give in to lies: France never loses command of its forces placed under the NATO flag. We are sovereign, he says. Our aircraft carrier will be the spearhead of this mission carried out with our allies. We are the only Europeans capable of deploying a carrier battle group of this scale. » And added: “It’s an immense source of pride. »
A 15-day mission
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is therefore partially right: the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier will indeed come under NATO operational control, and for the first time. But it is only a temporary 15-day mission in the Mediterranean. The latter will take place from April 26 to May 10 under the command of the StrikforNato maritime staff. It will have fifteen nations including France, and will be led by an American vice-admiral.
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The stated objective? Allow France “to fall into line by putting itself on the same level as our allies. We will also learn a lot,” said the commander of the French naval air group, Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard, to AFP. Since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, France has reinvested in NATO and the military alliance has increased its maritime presence in Europe.
Command recovered “in a snap of the fingers”
The Charles-de-Gaulle has already participated in Atlantic Alliance operations and exercises, but always under national control. On the other hand, other nations have already left their ships under NATO operational control: the United States in 2022, for the first time since the Cold War, or the British in 2023, also for the first time in their history. history.
However, France is not completely letting go of the helm of its nuclear aircraft carrier, which is resuming operations after eight months of work. “At any time, we can recover the mandate, and in a snap of the fingers recover the national command during operations if necessary,” said French Vice-Admiral Didier Maleterre, number two in NATO maritime command, on Tuesday.