Does Le Pen dare to stop the war?

Published 12 June 2024 at 12.27

Leader. A French withdrawal from EU military aid to Ukraine would likely mean the end of the war and force the Ukrainian government to the negotiating table under the worst possible conditions. But would Marine Le Pen dare to carry out such a maneuver?

Share the article

TwittraShare

Leader

• Cut leashes won't make multiculturalism work
• Why should immigrants in particular not have to follow the law?

France is now facing a new election, and even if the election concerns the National Assembly and not the presidency, the eyes are once again directed towards Marine Le Pen and her potential role as future French president.

Compared to her father Jean-Marie Le Pen's sensational victory in the first round of the 2002 election, Marine Le Pen's efforts are certainly rather unimpressive. Broadly speaking, she represents a politically correct platform where she has softened the immigration policy of the National Front, now National Gathering, and made it softer than, for example, that of the Swedish Moderates.

The question of her position in the ongoing war between Russia and However, Ukraine has become all the more interesting.

Marine Le Pen has long been a controversial figure in French politics, but after the criticism of immigration was abandoned, she has focused more on social and economic issues, where the party now constitutes a kind of nationalist left.

For example, Le Pen has advocated a ” French welfare state' and increased support for low-income earners, which differs markedly from her father, who had more neoliberal and anti-immigration views.

This development has gone so far that many now doubt that Marine Le Pen is even against immigration. Perhaps she is rather an opportunist who adapts her policies to the changing attitudes of the French public?

But this opportunism also makes Le Pen unpredictable. Regarding NATO and the French support for Ukraine, her position is still unclear.

Le Pen has previously expressed skepticism about NATO and advocated a more independent French foreign policy. At the same time, she has now formed an alliance with a liberal party and distanced herself from anti-immigration statements within her own group in the European Parliament, suggesting that she may be willing to compromise heavily to gain power.

French support for Ukraine is not just any support. The country has contributed nearly four billion euros in military and humanitarian aid so far and will spend another three billion this year alone.

On behalf of the US, France has also played an active role within the EU and NATO to coordinate support for the Ukrainian government. If this support were to be withdrawn, there would be far-reaching consequences.

Such a change could force Ukraine into peace negotiations with Russia, effectively ending the war.

The question is now if Le Pen will do like, for example, Jimmie Åkesson (SD), and change her position on NATO as soon as she gets real power.

Right-wing populists never achieve anything once they get into a government. It is a rule that so far has no exceptions. Either they do like Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and back down publicly on all their core issues, or they do like Donald Trump and keep talking about radical change but without achieving anything in that direction.

Oh second the page is France France. During the 1960s, the country temporarily left NATO military cooperation in protest against the organization's direction, and the French are also not entirely predictable in their subordinate relationship to the United States; a relationship that was last seriously strained in 2003 when they tried to stop the US invasion of Iraq with a French veto in the UN Security Council.

Le Pen has shown over the years that she can be both unpredictable and opportunistic, which makes it difficult to predict how she will act in a sharp situation. Her past actions and current alliances suggest she may be willing to compromise in order to gain and maintain power. But whether this will include a change in France's foreign policy remains to be seen.

FREE TIMES