Emmanuel Macron “is right” to discuss with Vladimir Poutine, estimated Tuesday Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc-Mélenchon, after a new call from the French president to “not humiliate Russia”, which generated a wave of criticism in Ukraine and in Eastern Europe in particular.
“The French president is right to try to find through discussion the means to stop this war, and to ensure that Ukraine regains its sovereignty and that Russian soldiers come out of Ukraine”, declared on Franceinfo the presidential finalist, who had been accused by Emmanuel Macron of “depending on Russian power”.
Marine Le Pen had pleaded during this campaign for a “strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia” once the war is over in Ukraine.
“I don’t understand why (Ukrainian) President Zelensky blames him for this since (he) said himself that the only way out would be diplomatic”, but “when we look for a diplomatic way out, we try to avoid the channel of discussions is breaking,” argued the far-right leader, who had been received by Mr. Putin during the 2017 presidential campaign.
However, Ms Le Pen reiterated her opposition to an embargo on the import of Russian oil or gas, supported by the French government.
It is for her “a stupid and harmful sanction for the French people” because the “Russian oil that we will not buy will be sold to others” and that energy prices will “increase” .
The rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who aspires to become Prime Minister at the end of the legislative elections, also approved, on Tuesday on France Inter, Emmanuel Macron’s strategy: “If in three weeks I have to take care of this country with him, it is perhaps better that I immediately avoid starting to cause incidents”.
On the merits, “I think that the Ukrainians should not talk to us like that”, he added, recalling that “France is arming” Ukraine, “France is supporting the Ukrainian people”.
“If President Macron speaks with Mr. Poutine, I agree with him,” he added, “because this man must not be left to shut himself up. But naivety would be to believe that by talking to him we will make him evacuate Ukraine”.
“One day or another, Russia will come back to the table, but it will take 10 or 15 years,” said Mr. Mélenchon, “because having broken everything, massacred people and committed war crimes , (…) it is also something irreversible in the minds” of Europeans.
On Friday, President Macron said he saw in Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen “a project of disorder and submission” to Russia.
08/06/2022 08:02:20 – Paris (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
