Suspicion of NATO lives on in France, especially in the radical left. They still consider the military alliance only a US project to expand their own influence, writes ‘s France reporter Jari Mäkinen.
The issue was voted on in a two-hour session that started at 9:30 p.m., where 11 MPs presented their opinion on the law.
The law will enter into force in a couple of days at the earliest, when the president Emmanuel Macron has signed it, and it will be published in the Official Journal of France.
The voting result was clear: 209 votes for and 46 against, empty votes and 255 absentees. The largest number of abstentions was Marine Le Pen led by representatives of the National Alliance, and the most important group of those who voted against was by Jean-Luc Melenchon founded by the Invincible France party.
However, the opposition and abstention is not in itself an objection to Finland or Sweden, about which many positive and even laudatory speeches were used during the debate.
Both are related to the bigger picture of how the extreme right and the radical left view NATO and the war in Ukraine.
NATO divides people
France has traditionally had and still has an ambivalent attitude towards NATO. The country has been a member of NATO from the beginning, but was not involved in the organization’s command bodies for 42 years.
In France, the US’s help in ending the Second World War is still constantly remembered and thanked, but at the same time its world domination is criticized.
World War II war hero and president Charles de Gaulle in the 1950s would have liked to include France in NATO’s governing bodies alongside the United States and Great Britain.
When this was not agreed to, de Gaulle began ambitious projects to improve France’s independent defense. France developed its own nuclear weapon, built submarines and missiles, designed jet fighters.
In the end, de Gaulle decided to withdraw France from NATO command bodies in 1967, and only the president Nicolas Sarkozy reversed the decision in 2009.
Even after that, France has demanded that Europe develop and improve its own defense alongside NATO cooperation. When the President of the United States Donald Trump distanced itself from Europe and weakened NATO, these demands only grew.
Now that Russia has started a war of aggression in Ukraine, France has continued to demand better equipment from European countries – also because it strengthens NATO.
France has supported the membership of Finland and Sweden from the beginning, and certainly was also helping and encouraging the countries in submitting the application.
However, suspicion of NATO lives on especially in the radical left, where NATO is still only considered a US project to expand its own influence and market its arms industry.
The left also wants to understand Russia, and as was evident in last night’s parliamentary debate, the Unyielding France party considers the conflict in Ukraine to be orchestrated by the West and the United States.
In their opinion, the expansion of NATO is dangerous and it increases the control of the military alliance in Europe. Russia should not be annoyed by the fact that countries that have been neutral for a long time are included in NATO.
On the other side of the political spectrum, the National Front’s relations with Russia have been discussed for a long time: the party has received support from Russia and Marine Le Pen’s relations to Vladimir Putin have at least been warm.
In the spring presidential election campaign, le Pen’s first election leaflets even had a large picture of le Pen smiling with Putin – the leaflets were destroyed immediately after the war in Ukraine started.
The last time yesterday, Tuesday, le Pen hoped for the lifting of Russian sanctions, because “they are of no help to the war”. The extreme right would also invest in France’s own defense instead of NATO.
The law was made quickly
In France, legislative proposals require the approval of the upper house of parliament, the Senate, and the lower house, the National Assembly.
Whereas in some countries the membership applications of Finland and Sweden were accepted within a couple of days after they were submitted, the French legal regulation system does not lend itself to such quick action.
In this case, the Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna the proposed law initiative was taken to the Senate for consideration on July 20, and the next day the law was approved by clear numbers – 323 representatives were in favor and 17 were against it.
The bill was very short, with only two articles. In the first, the agreement signed in Brussels for Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Defense Alliance was proposed for approval, and in the second, the same for Sweden.
The hundred-page documentary excellently explains the military-political history of Finland and Sweden, the situation in general, and also looks to the future. The text clearly advocates membership.
France and Turkey face off
France’s support for Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership was clear from the beginning, but the same cannot be said for Turkey.
If France were now applying for NATO membership instead of Finland, Turkey would probably not support it – so much do these countries in the same military alliance have a grudge against each other.
There are several reasons, one of which is personal chemistry. President Macron has trouble tolerating populist politicians, which shows Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in addition to his attitude, among other things To Boris Johnson. Relations between France and Britain were also quite cool before the situation in Ukraine heated up.
Another big reason is France’s strong desire to improve European defense. This is directly reflected in the tensions between Greece and Turkey, so that France has automatically had to support its EU partner against its NATO partner.
France has the largest fleet in the Mediterranean and is also securing the seas of Greece. Greece has also acquired a lot of defense technology from France. Greece has bought, for example, Rafale fighter jets, the first of which were delivered last year.
Turkey has also been irritated by the fact that France has officially condemned the massacre of Armenians by the Turks during the First World War.
Thus, France does not have many opportunities to pressure Turkey to accept Finland’s and Sweden’s NATO membership. However, there is certainly a lot going on behind the scenes of diplomacy, because France is a large and important NATO country, so it certainly has a say.
It is clear that it will do everything to ensure that Finland becomes a member of NATO as soon as possible.