Emmanuel Macron met with leading members of French parties on Thursday to clarify his position on Ukraine and find a common path.
The background to this is that the French president has said that he does not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, which threatens a direct conflict with Russia.
participants reported French media, Macron reiterated his position during the meeting. “I arrived worried and I'm leaving even more worried,” Manuel Bombard, a lawmaker from the left-wing La France Insomies party, told reporters. The Communist Party's Fabian Roussel said Macron had shown a map of Ukraine and said an advance of Russian troops “towards Odessa or Kiev” would trigger French intervention.
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“No borders, no red lines,” concluded Jordan Bardella, head of the right-wing populist Rallye Nationale party, as he left the Elysee Palace. According to Bardella's account, during a three-hour meeting with Macron, he pleaded that “France will not go to war with Russia.” He called the French president's approach “irresponsible and extremely dangerous to world peace”.
The leader of the LR Party, Eric Ciotti, They also expressed concern and denounced Macron's position as “instrumentalization for the purposes of electoral campaigning for the European elections”.
Moscow: Macron increases France's “involvement” in Ukraine conflict
In a video posted on Telegram on Thursday, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin also condemned Macron. “Mr Macron is committed to his policy, which will cause a strategic failure for our country,” Dmitry Peskov said. “This further increases the level of direct involvement of France” in the Ukraine conflict, Peskov added.
Peskov, however, pointed out “contradictions” in Macron's statements on February 26, saying he had “not stopped” sending Western ground troops to Ukraine. This caused unease among France's NATO allies, most of whom immediately rejected sending troops, including Germany. Macron later backed up his words, but at the same time insisted he rejected any “escalation” with Moscow. On Tuesday he called on Ukraine's allies not to be “cowardly” towards Russia.
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