Far-right leader Bardella backpedals on taking France out of NATO strategic military command
By NICOLAS GARRIGA and ELISE MORTON
Posted 6/19/24
VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — The far-right leader angling to become prime minister after France’s upcoming parliamentary election backtracked Wednesday on his party’s previous promise to pull out …
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
Far-right leader Bardella backpedals on taking France out of NATO strategic military command
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Front party, arrives at the Eurosatory Defense and security exhibition, Wednesday, June 19, 2024 in Villepinte, north of Paris. Jordan Bardella, the National Rally president hoping to become France's prime minister, appealed Tuesday to voters to hand his party a clear majority after French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on June 9 that he was dissolving France's National Assembly, parliament's lower house.( AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Posted
By NICOLAS GARRIGA and ELISE MORTON
VILLEPINTE, France (AP) — The far-right leader angling to become prime minister after France’s upcoming parliamentary election backtracked Wednesday on his party’s previous promise to pull out of NATO’s strategic military command.
National Rally president Jordan Bardella said at the Eurosatory arms trade show outside Paris in Villepinte that he “doesn’t plan to question the commitments France has made on the international stage” if voters give his far-right party a majority that enables him to lead a new government, in what would be an awkward power-sharing arrangement with President Emmanuel Macron.
Referring to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bardella said that "France mustn’t leave NATO’s military command while we are at war, because it would considerably weaken France’s responsibility on the European scene and, obviously, its credibility with regard to its allies.”
The comments pulled back from a campaign promise made by his party in its manifesto for the 2022 French presidential election. “The priority will be to leave the integrated NATO command,” the 2022 manifesto read, a move that would have taken French military staff out of the NATO body that plans operations, and weakened France’s role and influence within NATO.
This latest about-face comes as the National Rally is toning down previously announced positions in an attempt to win voters outside of its traditional base before the June 30 and July 7 two-round parliamentary election — the party’s first real chance of forming a government.
In spite of his comments regarding NATO, Bardella maintained that he's firmly against sending troops to Ukraine.
“I am opposed, unlike the president of the republic, to sending troops and sending French soldiers to Ukraine, because I believe that first of all, a majority of French people is opposed to this decision,” he said. Macron said in March that sending Western troops into Ukraine shouldn’t be ruled out.
Bardella said that he supported sending continued French supplies of weaponry, ammunition and other military equipment and support to Ukraine “to enable Ukraine to protect itself," but that he was also wary of the risk of any direct escalation with Russia, noting that it is nuclear-armed like France.
“My position has not changed. It is … to hold the front and at the same time to avoid any risk of escalation with Russia, because Russia is a nuclear power,” he said.
Earlier this month, Macron dissolved the lower house of France’s parliament in a surprise announcement, sending voters back to the polls, after his party was handed a humbling defeat by the far right in the European Parliament election.
In France, legislative elections decide the makeup of the parliament, not the occupant of the presidential Elysee Palace. Macron has a presidential mandate until 2027, and says that he won't not step down before the end of his term, although he might have to share power with a far-right-led government.
___
Elise Morton reported from London. Catherine Gaschka contributed to this report.