Paris:
President Emmanuel Macron lashed out at the Polish prime minister on Wednesday after criticizing the French leader’s repeated talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday criticized Macron’s hour-long phone calls with Putin, whom he compared to Hitler, suggesting they had accomplished nothing.
“These statements are both baseless and outrageous,” Macron told TF1 on Wednesday evening when asked about comments that threaten to undermine the unity of the EU during the bloc’s confrontation with Moscow over Ukraine.
He said the Polish leader was of a “far-right party” and “supported” his rival Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this month.
“I take full responsibility for speaking with the President of Russia, on behalf of France, to avoid the war and build a new architecture for peace in Europe several years ago,” he added.
“I did it from the start of my tenure,” he said, adding, “I was never naive, unlike others. I was never complicit, unlike others.”
Macron has tried to crack down on Le Pen’s ties to Russia, repeatedly emphasizing how she obtained a loan from a Russian bank that is still repaying her National Rally party.
Le Pen has tried to distance herself from Moscow, which she visited before the last elections in 2017 to meet Putin.
She has lobbied for the EU to drop sanctions against Russia after the annexation of Ukraine’s territory of Crimea in 2014 and has expressed her admiration for Putin in the past.
Le Pen also spoke to TF1 and called on France to withdraw its ambassador from Moscow after the murder of Ukrainian civilians in the city of Bucha, allegedly by Russian forces
“If there is real evidence, we have to be very strict,” she said.
Polls show Le Pen is quickly gaining ground over Macron ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting in France’s election.
– Risky diplomacy –
Macron’s investment in diplomatic talks with Putin sent him soaring in the polls in March, but has since fallen back in a campaign that has increasingly focused on the danger of inflation in France.
In her interview on Wednesday evening, Le Pen reiterated her promises to cut taxes on fuel and essential food items, while vowing to ban the Muslim headscarf in all public areas.
The eurosceptic nationalist also said she would refuse to stand in front of an EU flag for her official portrait if elected president, because “it’s not my job to be governor of a European region”.
In his comments on Monday, Poland’s Morawiecki criticized several European leaders, including Macron.
“How many times have you negotiated with Putin and what have you achieved?” he said to the French leader.
“We don’t argue, we don’t negotiate with criminals. Criminals must be fought.
‘No one negotiated with Hitler. Would you like to negotiate with Hitler, with Stalin, with Pol Pot?’
Morawiecki also called for new Western sanctions against Russia and compared Putin to dictators of the past.
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