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PARIS – French presidential candidate Marin Le Pen on Wednesday called for NATO-Russia reconciliation and reiterated a promise to withdraw French personnel from NATO’s integrated command if elected president on April 24th.
“As soon as the Russian-Ukrainian war is over and settled by a peace treaty, I will call for strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia,” Le Pen told a news conference on Wednesday.
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Predictions that President Emmanuel Macron could be ahead of Le Pen later this month by less than four to six percentage points in the presidential run-off have alarmed supporters of the president and governments across Europe. The current centrist is ahead of Le Pen by more than 30 percentage points in the runoff in 2017.
Le Pen’s comments were one of the strongest indications during the campaign that Le Pen’s presidency could fundamentally change France’s role in Western alliances and pose a major strategic challenge for France’s traditional allies. Although Le Pen condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it has been widely seen in the past as an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Just days before the Russian invasion, Le Pen attacked NATO’s founding principles. She seems to have softened her criticism of the military alliance since the invasion, but has signaled that her presidency will be a challenge to the organization’s survival as it stands. In an interview, she said NATO needs to shift its focus to fighting Islamist extremism.
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French presidential candidates from both the far right and the far left remain skeptical of NATO in light of the war in Ukraine. (Video: James Cornsilk, Rick Noak / The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)
Surveys show that a majority of the French public supports the alliance, but skepticism about NATO is widespread in the country’s politics. “The general opinion of the French public is, in fact, more transatlantic than the political class would like it to be,” said Tara Varma, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
France’s far left and far right have long criticized NATO as an alliance that largely revolves around the interests of the United States.
What is NATO and why is Ukraine not a member?
In recent weeks, three of the leading presidential candidates have sharply criticized NATO. The trio included far-right contender Eric Zemmour and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who promised to pull France out of the alliance altogether. Neither of them managed to enter the second round of the election, which will be a runoff between Le Pen and the leading Macron.
Le Pen’s plans for a limited withdrawal from NATO are modeled on a precedent set by former French General and President Charles de Gaulle, who temporarily suspended France’s participation in NATO’s military command in 1966. NATO describes its command structure as the “backbone” of the alliance, a structure made up of a number of staffs that manage its operations.
In a 2019 interview, Macron became the last French president to shake the alliance when he warned of his “brain death”. His comments were prompted by the transatlantic rift caused by Trump’s presidency and the direct military intervention of Turkey, a NATO member, in Syria.
But most recently, the French leader signaled support for the alliance.
“I think NATO has just suffered an electric shock,” Macron told reporters after the invasion, suggesting that the alliance was undergoing an evolution that could strengthen it.
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