PARIS – Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right candidate for president, rejected a “herd-like conformity” with the Biden administration, saying on Wednesday that France would quit NATO’s integrated military command if elected and aim for the alliance “a strategic rapprochement” with Russia.
As the Russian war in Ukraine continues, Ms. Le Pen, in fact, that her election would end or at least disrupt President Biden’s united alliance in confrontation with Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin, and perhaps create a rift in Western Europe for Mr Putin to exploit.
By rejecting multilateralism, criticizing Germany, criticizing the European Union, making climate issues a low priority, attacking ‘globalists’ and keeping a near silence on Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine, Ms Le Pen gave a foretaste of a worldview that was instantly reminiscent of the Trump presidency and seemed to pose a direct threat to NATO’s efforts to arm Ukraine and defeat Russia.
A pendulum to the far right by France, a nuclear power and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, would realign the world, with unpredictable and disruptive consequences.
In an extended 75-minute press conference devoted to international relations, and apparently intended to bolster her credentials on the global stage, Ms Le Pen said France would remain in NATO and respect its core Article 5, which states that an attack on an alliance member is an attack on everyone.
But, she added, “I would not place our forces under either an integrated NATO command or a European command.”
Her position, she said, was “no submission to an American protectorate exercised on European soil under the cover of NATO” — an attitude she compared to General Charles de Gaulle’s in 1966, when he expelled France from the integrated army of the United Nations. NATO took. command, where it remained until 2009.
Her position, she said, did not mean “submission to Moscow.” But her pledge to withdraw France from command was in line with the major powers’ “equivalence” policy that she said she will pursue if she defeats incumbent President Emmanuel Macron in a second vote for the French presidency. on April 24.
Polls show that Mr Macron has 53 to 55 percent of the vote, for Ms Le Pen with 45 to 47 percent. But the political situation is unstable as the president, rushing through the country, makes efforts to make up for a lackluster first campaign. The French nationalist far right is closer to gaining power than at any time since World War II.
The proposed rapprochement with Russia, “once the Russo-Ukrainian war is over and settled by a peace treaty,” would even be in the interest of the United States, Ms Le Pen suggested, because Washington would not be served by a “close Russian- Chinese union.”
Ms. Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally, formerly the National Front, a vehemently anti-immigrant party, dismissed the Biden administration as “too aggressive toward Beijing,” saying the United States “needs enemies to keep its allies under its control.” domination.”
It was one of the few references to the United States, none of them positive, as Ms. Le Pen embarked on a sort of world tour of her preoccupations, also excluding Russia, but containing a lengthy exegesis of why France has solemn obligations in Lebanon. .
“France is not France without grandeur,” she declared.
Nor is France without protests. The press conference was briefly interrupted by a protester holding a heart-shaped image of Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Putin. The protester was wrestled to the ground and dragged outside by guards.
War between Russia and Ukraine: important developments
Ms. Le Pen said the “non-aligned” France she envisioned would “threat enemies of the Western camp in a more effective manner because the country would no longer follow an alignment with the United States and thus greater, deterrent unrest in the United States.” would cause calculations of all adversaries.”
Mr Macron has attacked Ms Le Pen as her intention to destroy the European Union, comparing the April 24 vote to a referendum on Europe. Nationalism, he said in Strasbourg on Tuesday, is leading to “an alliance of nations willing to go to war.”
Ms. Le Pen said that a British-style exit from the European Union was not in her plans, but that she preferred a “European alliance of nations”, and Mr Macron’s frequent references to “European sovereignty” and “European strategic autonomy”. In practice, she favors a range of measures – including favoring French people over EU citizens for jobs and housing – designed to undermine the 27-strong union.
The same aim appeared to lie behind her tirade against Germany, France’s most important partner in building a united Europe. Franco-German friendship was central to post-war Europe, the symbol of the continent’s healing after the devastation of two world wars.
Ms. Le Pen stated that France and Germany were faced with “irreconcilable strategic differences”.
She said she would end all cooperation with Germany in developing new military equipment in order to continue national programs. She denounced the “discreet and clever hegemony over Europe” orchestrated by Angela Merkel, the former German chancellor. She suggested that Germany has embarked on a covert plan to undermine France’s centralized model with a German federal model or even the creation of “large cross-border regions.”
Germany would not be allowed to “destroy France’s nuclear industry,” Ms Le Pen promised. She insisted that Germany’s interests diverged from those of France in that Germany “views NATO as the natural pillar of its security, yesterday and today, leading to it buying American.”
Ms. Le Pen made her point, saying, “Germany thus represents the opposite of France’s strategic identity.” Nevertheless, she said: “I want to underline that I am not hostile to the German nation.”
The overall message was clear enough. Mrs. Le Pen, who rejects Franco-German cooperation, is hostile or suspicious of the United States and NATO, seeks rapprochement with Russia and a softer approach to China, would steer France in a direction that, for the Biden administration, one of America’s oldest alliances at a time of war in Europe.