French far-right party divided over Putin’s non-invitation to D-Day anniversary

5 months ago 28

Asked about Vladimir Putin’s non-invitation to the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, several French far-right National Rally (ID) leaders expressed divergent positions on Wednesday evening (5 June), and National Rally’s long-standing leader Marine Le Pen could not make up her mind, fueling the confusion.

Twenty-four heads of state will be present this Thursday (6 June) for the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending as he was not invited because of the war in Ukraine.

Vice-president of the National Rally Sébastien Chenu on Sunday (2 June), regretted on France 3 that Putin had not been invited, speaking of a “missed opportunity’ which he felt would have been “an opportunity to organise a peace conference.”

He believed that Putin’s invitation to the 70th anniversary in 2014, when he had just annexed Crimea, laid the foundation stone for the Minsk agreements, leading to a ceasefire in Ukraine’s Donbass region in September 2014.

Speaking on France Inter three days later (June 5), the National Rally president and head of list for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, said the opposite.

“Given the current international context […] it would have been very complicated to invite [Vladimir] Putin and […] to have him stand next to the Ukrainian president’, Volodymyr Zelensky,” he said.

Thus the party’s number one and number two put forward contradictory views.

Marine Le Pen makes no decision

Invited to give her views on BFM on Wednesday evening, National Rally’s long-standing leader Marine Le Pen, preferred to take a back seat.

The question of whether or not the Russian leader should have been invited “does not arise,” she said twice, “since he is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and could not have travelled to France.”

While “[she] has no problem with the question”, as she insisted, the National Rally’s position has not been clarified. Especially when it comes to what doctrine and attitude to adopt with the Putin led Russian government.

Bardella used his interview to claim that Russia “threatens our security”, but his running mate for the EU elections, Thierry Mariani, contradicted him saying on Sud Radio (May 22) that, “Russia is not a threat to France or Europe.”

“He has a sensibility on this subject that is not mine,” said Jordan Bardella, before playing down the importance of the statement. “In a political movement that aims to win 50% of the vote in a presidential election, not everyone thinks the same way,” he said, without describing Russia as an “enemy”, preferring “to avoid escalation.”

With just a few days to go to the European elections in France, the National Rally is still leading the polls (winning a predicted 31 seats), with the Emmanuel Macron-backed “Need for Europe” list (Renew) a distant second (with a prediction of 15 seats).

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]