French President Emmanuel Macron summoned French opposition leaders to his palace office to explain his vision, leaving those in attendance anxious and confused.
Leaders of France’s political parties attended the Ukraine War Conference at the Elysée Palace on Thursday, where they were briefed by President Macron and shown military maps. Macron’s insistence on continuing to talk about a theoretical deployment to Ukraine has caused ripples in Germany, where he has implored his European neighbors to stop bringing up the subject.
Many of France’s party leaders are clearly at odds with Macron and his politics and have resisted such all-party meetings in the past, but the president’s recent comments on the Ukraine war clearly put them at odds. It was enough to get him involved.
The meeting was also a clear change of pace for Macron, given his need to treat parties like Marine Le Pen’s right-wing populist National Rally as legitimate political actors. Otherwise, the vice president labeled him “Vladimir Putin’s foot soldier” after the party criticized his position. He was generous about sending troops to Ukraine last week.
President Macron calls on Europe not to be ‘cowardly’ and insists on proposing sending troops to Ukraine only to ‘start a debate’https://t.co/XJvce601X9
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 6, 2024
Mr. Macron may have been hoping for buy-in from his political opponents, but most left, reporting confusion and concern about what they were hearing internally. The national rally was predictably scathing, with party leader Jordan Bardella criticizing Macron’s willingness to flaunt his “to war” policy, and establishment-right Republican leader Eric Ciotti He said he used the rally to reiterate his opposition to direct military intervention. .
Ciotti mused after the summit, given that the summons and discussions do not seem to have changed his mind. “I sincerely doubt the usefulness of this meeting.”
Politicians on the left don’t seem convinced either. Manuel Bompard, from the populist left-wing party France Unyielding, said only that he had “arrived with anxiety and left even more anxious,” but the party condemned Macron’s “dangerous” escalation. .
French conservative newspaper le figaro meanwhile report A source “close to the president” reassured him that Macron is not pushing for war, but rather has an open mind and is not afraid to say so. They are said to have said: “France is not in an escalatory attitude. We will respond proportionately… But if we are not prepared to say we will not rule out anything, we will not repeat what happened before February 24, 2022. I take the risk of doing so.”
World War III Watch: Macron sends troops to Ukraine for the first time, Moscow warns of ‘inevitable’ war with NATOhttps://t.co/NjQbqHsN1Q
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 27, 2024
“We cannot set limits for ourselves in the face of an enemy who does not set limits,” President Macron said at the meeting.
Perhaps giving some clarity to Macron’s position, the defense minister insists that while having active troops on the ground is not being discussed, support forces are. This means sending French troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers on their home turf, or fighting to detect and clear the landmines that are a key element of the conflict and will plague the Ukrainian countryside in the long run if left unaddressed. That might mean sending in engineers.
Minister of Defense Sébastien Lecorne Said Such things should be discussed. Because “we are no longer in the same situation as two years ago…the counterattack did not work and without angering the allies, the situation is no longer the same as in Washington…France’s history” is not weak. Maintaining a balance of power is not about being the underdog or the escalator. We don’t want to show weakness to Moscow. ”
Another initiative France is working on, he said, is to have defense companies set up factories in Ukraine to produce weapons and repair systems locally.
World War III Watch: President Macron wears controversial boots on the ground, comments ‘carefully’ and ‘thought out’ https://t.co/Mn6nP7BgjB
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 1, 2024
Macron’s words did not go down well in Germany either, with the French president’s first comments breaking a de facto omerta on discussions of NATO forces in Ukraine causing despair. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Friday he completely rejected the idea and asked for no further discussion.
die welt report “Nobody really wants to put their boots on the ground in Ukraine. It’s being discussed right now, so it should stop at this point,” Pistorius said during a visit to Finland on Friday. Finland agreed, with Defense Minister Antti Hakkenen saying, “Currently, no one supports the idea of ’boots on the ground.”’
Understandably, Russia has expressed its own anger at the suggestion that the West could be drawn further into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In response to President Macron’s quip that there should be no restrictions, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev – now quite well known for his daily threats to nuke Western countries at the slightest provocation – said the following: To France.”
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov SaidOn the other hand, “Mr. Macron is convinced of his policy of inflicting a strategic defeat on our country. He continues to increase the level of direct French involvement in this war. From our point of view, this It is in no way in the interests of the French people… Macron begins discussing the possibility of sending troops to the conflict zone in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the French Foreign Minister flatly denies the possibility of sending such a contingent. .”
French PM suggests populists are Putin’s ‘unit’ as he questions Macron’s war march rhetoric https://t.co/bgdz7zErab
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 1, 2024
