Jean-Noël Barrot accuses Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of complacency towards Vladimir Putin

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, estimated on Sunday that Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon have “chosen their camp”, which “is not that of Ukraine”, after recent statements by the two presidential candidates on the conflict with Russia. The leader of La France Insoumise estimated on September 23 that it was “perhaps necessary to ask” whether the intensification of the Russian threat in Europe was not linked to “the deep shooting that Ukraine is doing” on Russian territory, while emphasizing that “Russia is the invader of Ukraine”.

The next day, the leader of the National Rally, announced at the top of the polls for the first round, questioned the financial support granted by France to kyiv since the start of the conflict in February 2022. “We can continue to train their soldiers, we can train their military hierarchy, we can grant them material aid, particularly in terms of military equipment... We can no longer help Ukraine financially,” she declared during a debate organized by the Politico website.

“I am not surprised because for a long time, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen have chosen their camp. And their camp is not that of Ukraine,” declared Jean-Noël Barrot on France 2. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon says 'I support Ukraine, but it's all Ukraine's fault. It's Ukraine that started it and sometimes even, it's NATO that started it.' Do you realize the inversion, the rewriting, even the historical revisionism of which Jean-Luc Mélenchon is guilty?

“Ukrainian resistance is the fight for independence, for freedom,” he added, before evoking French resistance under German occupation: “Should we have held back our blows? Should the Free French Forces and the internal resistance have shown restraint to defend (...) the territorial integrity of our country?

“Jean-Luc Mélenchon took off his gloves to punch the Ukrainians in the face. Marine Le Pen kept them, but basically, it's the same message. It is a distrust of the European Union, of our political organization and it is a complacency towards Vladimir Putin. “They systematically choose to go in the direction of Vladimir Putin, and to recite his rhetoric,” he asserted. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen are regularly the subject of strong criticism from their political opponents regarding their positions on the war in Ukraine.