Thierry Mariani had forgotten his umbrella to go to Public Senate. However, it would have been useful for him, this Thursday, to ward off the torrent of reproaches which fell on him, when the candidates for the European elections mentioned the Ukrainian conflict. Let’s start again. The heads of the list were gathered at the European Parliament for this first campaign debate before the June 9 vote. Jordan Bardella, who clearly had better things to do than go to the set of the parliamentary channel (“and why not Coquelicot TV?” he joked, as reported La Tribune Sunday), preferred to send RN MEP Thierry Mariani in his place, although he is regularly accused of maintaining pro-Russian connections. A wise choice if ever there was one, given that the majority’s main argument to discredit the National Rally concerns precisely this subject…
However, it was not until the middle of the show that all the candidates, or almost all, finally agreed. When discussing the issue of the war in Ukraine. It was the journalist Thomas Hugues who launched the hostilities, reminding Thierry Mariani of comments made on February 23, 2022, three days after the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin, namely: “France has an interest in having good relations with Russia.” Taking the floor again, Nicolas Sarkozy’s former minister tried to defend himself, recalling that support for Ukraine and the deliberation of March 1, 2022 had been voted by “the overwhelming majority of the RN group” in the European Parliament…” Except me,” he clarified.
“Did you receive money from Mr. Putin?”
It was enough to wake up Raphaël Glucksmann, MEP and head of the socialist list, for whom the pillorying of Thierry Mariani was well worth the sacrifice of a third of his speaking time. “You recognized the annexation of Crimea”, he choked up in front of Thierry Mariani, who still had time to clarify: “the attachment”, before Raphaël Glucksmann continued: “The first memory what I have in the European Parliament is to hear you call on Vladimir Putin to exterminate the Syrian rebels. […] I find myself face to face with the little telegraph operator from the Kremlin who votes against all the rules that we pass to defend ourselves against the hybrid war that the Putin regime is waging against our democracies.”
It’s the turn of the head of the environmentalist list, Marie Toussaint, to take over: “You helped Mr. Putin to monitor elections on the ground, explain to us your relationship with Mr. Putin, did you receive money?”
“My relations with Putin are certainly less frequent than those of Mr. Macron,” Thierry Mariani counter-argued. Fortunately for him, the ordeal ended after about twenty minutes, when it was time to move on to the next topic of the debate: the cost of energy and purchasing power. Conclusion of the presenters on the Mariani case: “We expected it, we were not disappointed!” Conclusion on the frontist side: “It’s true that it was perhaps not our best idea.” Maybe Jordan Bardella should have released himself.