The position of the RN is changing. Marine Le Pen is asking this Friday, the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that France take “the initiative of a conference on peace” to obtain a “peaceful and rapid end to the conflict”. In a letter to the French posted via Twitter, the president of the National Rally group in the Assembly believes that “working for peace is not an act of allegiance except for the interest of the world and the consideration of men.
While the far-right party has changed its discourse in recent days from a benevolent position towards Russia to an admission of “collective naivety” in the face of Vladimir Putin’s “expansionist ambitions”, its leader still pleads for “an independent position” of France in this conflict.
“Never in recent years has the world needed France so much, its voice, the benevolent authority of its diplomacy, its ability to influence the great powers,” writes Marine Le Pen. It “must take the initiative of a conference on peace which would make it possible to give to the belligerents, to their unfortunate populations and to the world, the perspective of a peaceful and rapid end to the conflict. »
« Naïveté collective »
The former presidential candidate recalls her reluctance on the “hasty and somewhat thoughtless” sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union, in particular “those on energy”, which “have plunged our economies into major difficulties” . She also criticizes “the lack of composure of some of our leaders” and the “irresponsible warmongering” which “puts Europe and the world at risk of conflagration”.
Thursday, on the eve of the anniversary of the outbreak of the war, the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella recognized, in the daily Opinion, “a collective naivety with regard to the expansionist will of Vladimir Putin”. Two weeks earlier, the MEP had stood up in the Brussels hemicycle to applaud Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky against the advice of other RN parliamentarians. MEP Thierry Mariani, one of the most Russophiles of French elected officials, skipped the session.
Turn
Marine Le Pen had surprised herself the previous week by going to a dinner organized by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, on the occasion of the visit to Paris of her Ukrainian counterpart.
Is the French far-right party starting a turn? For a long time, Marine Le Pen did not hide an interest in Vladimir Poutine who had moreover received her at the Kremlin in 2017, a month after the French presidential candidate had unreservedly recognized the referendums ratifying the Russian invasion in Crimea and condemned European sanctions.
She is also still in the process of repaying a loan of nine million euros to a Russian creditor, linked to former soldiers. But Moscow’s offensive against kyiv has gradually forced the far-right French party to denounce its past friendships.