During the great ritual debate between the two rounds, Emmanuel Macron accused, Wednesday April 20, Marine Le Pen of “depend on Russian power” et “by Mr. Putin” to get “taken a loan from a Russian bank”.
“You talk to your banker when you talk about Russia, that’s the problem, Mr.me The pen “said the candidate president during a tense exchange devoted to the war in Ukraine. “Mr. Macron, it is false and it is quite dishonestreacted Mme The pen. I am an absolutely and totally free woman. »
The candidate felt that it was not “no coincidence that five years ago Russia intervened in the campaign” presidential to his detriment. “You have always been ambiguous on the subject because you are not in a power-to-power situation, that you cannot properly defend the interests of France on this subject, because your interests are linked to close people. of Russian power”he added, addressing his opponent for the second round, Sunday, April 24.
A loan of 9 million euros
The candidate had been received with great fanfare by Vladimir Putin during the 2017 campaign and his party continues to repay a loan of 9 million euros from a creditor linked to former Russian soldiers. “It takes a long time to reimburse and we reimburse under the control of the National Commission for Campaign Accounts [et des financements politiques] »who “is extremely severe and rigorous”said M.me The pen.
Mr Macron also criticized her for being “one of the first European politicians, in 2014, to recognize (…) annexation of Crimea by Russia. “Crimea must not have posed a lot of problems for you either, since you received Mr. Putin with great fanfare at Versailles” then « in Brégançon [Var], at your vacation spot »replied M.me The pen. And Mr. Macron responds: “I received Mr. Putin as a head of state, but not as a banker, Mr.me The pen. »
The candidate of the National Rally expressed her “solidarity and [sa] absolute compassion with the Ukrainian people”. “The aggression of which Ukraine has been the victim is not acceptable”, she considered. She greeted ” the efforts “ developed by the president “to try to find, in the name of France, the means, the ways of peace”.
Mr Macron repeated that his priority was to“avoid the widening of the conflict, because we are not people’s vassals, and gradually bring Russia to its senses”.