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PARIS — French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday called for reconciliation between NATO and Russia, repeating her promise to pull French personnel out of NATO’s integrated command if she is elected president on April 24.
“Once the Russo-Ukrainian war is over and settled by a peace treaty, I will call for the implementation of a strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia,” Le Pen told a news conference on Wednesday.
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Predictions that President Emmanuel Macron could oust Le Pen in the runoff later this month by just four to six percentage points have unsettled presidential supporters and governments across Europe. The incumbent centrist beat Le Pen by more than 30 percentage points in the 2017 runoff.
Le Pen’s comments were one of the strongest hints during the campaign that a Le Pen presidency could fundamentally change France’s role in Western alliances and pose a major strategic challenge to France’s traditional allies. Although Le Pen has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she has been widely viewed as an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the past.
Just days before the Russian invasion, Le Pen attacked NATO’s founding principles. She appeared to tone down her criticism of the military alliance after the invasion, but nevertheless signaled that her presidency would be a challenge to the organization’s survival in its current form. In an interview, she said NATO should focus on countering Islamist extremism.
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French presidential candidates from both the far right and far left remain skeptical about NATO amid the war in Ukraine. (Video: James Cornsilk, Rick Noack/The Washington Post, Photo: The Washington Post)
Polls suggest 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 actually more transatlantic than the political class would like it to be,” said Tara Varma, Paris office director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
France’s far left and far right have long criticized NATO as an alliance largely centered 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. That trio included far-right candidate Éric Zemmour and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who vowed to pull France out of the alliance entirely. Neither made it into the second ballot, which will be a runoff between Le Pen and lead candidate Macron.
Le Pen’s plans for a limited exit from NATO follow a precedent set by former French general and President Charles de Gaulle, who temporarily halted French participation in NATO’s military command structure in 1966. NATO refers to its command structure as the “backbone”. the Alliance, a structure made up of several headquarters that manage its operations.
In a 2019 interview, Macron became the youngest French president to rock the alliance when he warned of his “brain death”. The reason for his comments was the transatlantic rift sparked by the Trump presidency and NATO member Turkey’s direct military intervention in Syria.
But most recently, the French head of state signaled support for the alliance.
“I think NATO just got electrocuted,” Macron told reporters after the invasion, hinting that the alliance is undergoing a development that could strengthen it.