“There is no love, there are only proofs of love”, said the poet. In politics, the proverb also works. Here, no love, only votes. “The moral, political and material support for Ukraine is obvious to me,” said Jordan Bardella in the columns of Opinion, February 22. To hear the president of the National Rally, the far-right party would now fully support the Ukrainian nation in its fight against the Russian aggressor. Ended, support mixed with admiration for the regime of Vladimir Putin. Forgotten, the two loans from Russia granted to the party in 2014 (2 million euros to the microparty of Jean-Marie Le Pen, Cotelec, and 9 million from a Czech-Russian bank for the FN). Fainted, the trips of elected officials to the Donbass to support the pro-Russian separatists…
Marine Le Pen’s protege now says he is “in favor of sending anything that can enable Ukraine to defend its sovereignty and protect its borders”. The only limit to its support would be, according to him, “the sending of planes, tanks and, more broadly, long-range missiles”. (Almost) total support therefore, within reasonable limits so as not to precipitate Europe into war. Really ? L’Express reviewed the various votes of the RN in the European Parliament – and therefore those of Jordan Bardella – since February 24, 2022, the date of the start of the Russian invasion. In three-quarters of the cases, the far-right party votes against or abstains from voting resolutions that propose to help Ukraine, even if it involves economic or legal instruments, far from any delivery heavy weapons.
Let’s start from the beginning. Of the twenty or so resolutions analysed, Marine Le Pen’s MEPs spoke in favor of supporting Ukraine only three times. The first, in March 2022, to condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine. A position that allows them today to put forward “a firm condemnation” of Russian aggression, even if it remains an isolated act. Since then, MEPs have only voted twice in favor of pro-Ukrainian resolutions: on the country’s food security (March 2022) and for the collection of evidence relating to international crimes by Eurojust (May 2022).
The overwhelming majority of the other votes are all significantly less favorable to Ukraine. Since the start of the war, elected RNs have systematically abstained when it comes to granting financial support to the attacked country (September and November 2022). They also abstain when it comes to condemning “the escalation of the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine” in October 2022, or when the European Parliament comes out in favor of the establishment of a tribunal on crimes of aggression against Ukraine (January 2023). Ditto on the preparation of the summit between the European Union and Ukraine in February 2023: the RN abstains (Thierry Mariani will even vote against). More recently, on February 16, the Lepenist deputies once again chose abstention: it was a question of condemning Russia and supporting political prisoners like Alexeï Navalny, imprisoned since January 2021.
The RN and Ukraine: more than relative support.
© / The Express
“Today, we pay the Ukrainian state on everything permanently”
How to explain such reluctance, if not out of a desire to spare the Russian ally? “The titles of the resolutions do not always correspond to the content, it’s quite complicated. For example, there may be a deliberation on disability and inside a whole pro-immigration part!”, tries MEP Philippe Olivier, also special adviser to Marine Le Pen.
While officially pronouncing support for Ukraine, Marine Le Pen’s party refuses to grant macroeconomic aid to the country. Even when it is limited to loans and aims to ensure the sustainability of public services or to rehabilitate infrastructure damaged by war. “Today, we pay the Ukrainian state on everything permanently, sweeps Thierry Mariani. We do not have to water a state which is one of the most corrupt in Europe indefinitely.” Gilles Lebreton, for his part, invokes the fate of French chicken producers, victims according to him of Ukrainian competition. “We agree to help Ukraine, but not to the detriment of our producers!”, Believes the latter.
To justify the abstention on the creation of a court on the crimes of aggression against Ukraine, Philippe Olivier like Thierry Mariani evoke… the case of Pierre Palmade, the comedian imprisoned for having caused a car accident under the cocaine addiction. “How are we empowered to define if there is a war crime? Should we also vote to say if Pierre Palmade is guilty?” (Philip Oliver). “In law, we do anything! It’s as if a French deputy created a crime of driving under orgy with drugs!” (Thierry Mariani).
More generally, RN deputies invoke the need “to calm things down” with Russia. This logic of appeasement would justify, for example, the refusal to vote for the resolution in support of Russian political prisoners. “If the objective is to restore peace, now is really not the time to support the fate of Navalny. The EU’s priority should not be to stigmatize Russia”, defends Gilles Lebreton. A logic which would also explain, according to him, why the RN voted against the recognition of Russia “as a state supporting terrorism” (November 2022) and against temporary trade concessions to Ukraine (in May 2022). Positions on which the RN finds itself totally isolated, with the exception of defectors from Reconquest, the party of Eric Zemmour.
Thierry Mariani and the vocabulary of the Kremlin
“Thierry Mariani’s explanations of vote are gratinated! We have the impression of hearing Dmitri Peskov!”, Laments Nathalie Loiseau, president of the Macronist delegation in Brussels, in reference to the spokesperson for Vladimir Poutine, that the elected lepenist knows well. On his official page, Mariani justifies each vote, sometimes repeating word for word the Kremlin’s rhetoric, insisting on “the cultural similarity” between Ukraine and Russia, the bruised families “in both camps”, castigating “the powers which have decided to transform this confrontation into a global issue”, the “maximalist demands” of the Ukrainian president and the “escalation of economic sanctions”.
According to our information, the co-president of the Franco-Russian Dialogue, a pro-Kremlin lobbying association, drafts the voting list for the National Rally himself on foreign affairs issues. To do this, the deputy is supported by the group’s adviser on diplomatic issues, a Franco-Russian named Tamara Volokhova. The former model worked with ex-FN MEP Aymeric Chauprade, at the time the latter helped secure the party’s Russian loan. The collaborator also accompanied MEPs to participate as observers in the much criticized independence referendums in Crimea. “What do you want? To fire her, to hang her because she is of Russian origin?”, Thierry Mariani gets carried away. On February 28, the latter took part, alongside Tamara Volokhova, in a confidential meeting behind closed doors with the other members of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs office. A situation repeatedly denounced by their political opponents.
“Between the kakemonos in the colors of Ukraine and Ursula von der Leyen who arrives disguised as a flag, the European Parliament is bathed in an atmosphere between folklore and hysteria! We must keep reason”, assumes Philippe Olivier, who swears to have “compassion” for Ukraine. Two days after the interview with Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen published a press release in which she distances herself from her dolphin. “As far as I am concerned, I will continue to carry tirelessly the message of independence and peace which was, I believe, the honor of our country”. The word “support” has disappeared from the subject. Love, evidence…