While MPs are due to speak on Tuesday March 12 on the aid strategy for Ukraine during a debate and a symbolic vote, Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, declared on France 2 that his party would abstain from the vote. “On this text, the principle of which we can support, there are red lines,” he said, including Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO.
Asked about Mr. Bardella’s comments, MP Benjamin Haddad (Renaissance) estimated on BFM-TV that “the RN is incapable of moving beyond ambiguity”. Abstaining is “a way of supporting Russia,” continued the president of the France-Ukraine friendship group.
“Abstention is a form of ambiguity. We can clearly see that in this debate the RN is embarrassed”, added on Sud Radio the boss of the Republicans, Eric Ciotti, for whom “we must be alongside the Ukrainians”.
The Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, must kick off the debates around 4:30 p.m., before the intervention of the political groups then a vote, without binding value, expected around 8 p.m. In his statement, the head of government must present the Franco-Ukrainian security agreement of February 16. Concluded for a period of ten years, it includes a strengthening of military cooperation, particularly in the areas of artillery and air defense.
On the left, the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI), Manuel Bompard, also expressed reservations about this vote, during an interview on RTL on Sunday, believing that “Ukraine’s accession to the Union European Union, or Ukraine’s accession to NATO”, are “red lines”, adding that “there was no question” for him of voting “in favor of this text”.
“You really think NATO is an aggressor of Russia? The pacifists are in the west, but the missiles are in the east,” Olivier Faure reacted on Tuesday on Franceinfo to the Insoumis.
Three months before the June 9 election, aid to Ukraine has become one of the key themes of the European campaign, particularly since Emmanuel Macron’s outings on the subject of sending ground troops, which he does not rule out, and support for Kiev, to which he does not want to put “any limits”, which have garnered protests from the oppositions.
After the Assembly, a similar debate will be held in the Senate on Wednesday.
