Jean-Luc Mélenchon, twelve years of controversial outings on the war in Ukraine and Russia

Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not avoid the subject on Saturday, at Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis), in front of 20,000 supporters: he, president, France will enter “frankly into the settlement of the Russian invasion in Ukraine”. The controversy came from the way in which he intends to go about it.

The head of LFI raised the possibility of a peace agreement including territorial concessions, demanding consultation of the populations concerned. Such concessions could not be made “without asking the populations concerned if they agree to be on this side of the border or the other,” he declared. Taking the example of Donbass, he defended the right of its population to choose between Ukraine and Russia, “if the question is raised of an agreement between the two nations”.

This position is not new, but criticism has been rife. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, accused him of becoming the “spokesperson for the Kremlin”, who insists that “deep down, Donbass is…