These are quite rare discussions within the hemicycle of the National Assembly. The deputies were gathered this Monday, March 3, in the grounds of the Bourbon Palace on Monday, March 3 for a debate without vote on Ukraine and European Defense, at a time when the very strong tensions between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky fear Europe a total disengagement of the United States in Ukraine. Back on the positions and declarations of the various political camps.
“We are strong and we don’t know,” says François Bayrou
“We are strong and we don’t know it. And we comply as if we were weak,” said François Bayrou on Monday. “We, Europeans, are stronger than we believe.” “If we compare the arsenals […]our continental armed forces added to those of the United Kingdom, it is more than 2 and a half million professional soldiers, 25 % more than the Russian forces. These are 3,000 combat aircraft […]twice as much as the United States and twice as much as Russian aviation, “developed the Prime Minister, opening the debate on Ukraine and European security.
And “if we are strong, it is up to us, Europeans, to guarantee the security and the defense of Europe”, he pleaded by praising the “central” place of France, the only nuclear power on the continent with the United Kingdom. “France was right” to “have an autonomous army” and “we discover it today at the very moment when our main ally [NDLR : américain] It seems to be stored with the elements of language of the country (Russia) which attacks Ukraine and threatens the rest of Europe, “he said.
Returning to the altercation in the oval office of the White House, the Prime Minister finally spoke of “a staggering scene, marked with brutality, of the will to humiliation” of the Ukrainian president. Which “did not fold” and whose “honor” deserves recognition “, he added, applauded by the deputies.
Marine Le Pen will never support “a chimerical European defense”
At the gallery of the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen said that her camp can “never support a chimerical European defense”. By again opposing “the sending of French fighter troops on Ukrainian soil”, which she compared to “a madness”, the head of the deputies national rallying has nevertheless estimated that “only a possible participation in a mandate under helmets could be possible” – very improbable hypothesis, since it goes through a vote in the UN Security Council of which Russia is a member, veto.
Regarding nuclear deterrence, “sharing it is abolishing it”, said the far -right leader, considering that “nuclear fire, supreme degree of sovereignty, is an absolute” which “does not relativize, except to no longer exist”. “Triggering nuclear fire is inseparable from national and popular legitimacy,” she added.
The triple unhappy presidential candidate also stressed that he was, according to her, “made it possible to worry about the gradual abandonment by France of her singular role of balance power”. “An effective foreign and security policy and in accordance with our interests is based on facts, realities, understanding the faults that power relations can allow us to exploit to prevail our objectives, much more than on the outbursts, the emotions, even the manifestations of Hubris”, she estimated, calling to “support Ukraine” with “realism” and “keeping in mind.
Gabriel Attal calls on Europe to take “its future in hand”
During his intervention as president of the group together for the Republic, Gabriel Attal called on Europe to take its “future in hand”. “It is up to us, France and the European nations to take over, to show the world that everything is not allowed, that everything is not that transaction and deal to conclude, that we do not change the defense of freedom, that we do not change the right of peoples to dispose of themselves, that we do not change the support of democracy”.
“Europe is not the vassal of anyone and should not depend on anyone,” he said, declaring that “Europe must become the new strong place in democracy” without turning back in the United States “.
“I think we have to reconsider our position on frozen Russian assets,” said Gabriel Attal. “The situation has changed, the threat has crossed a new level. Before considering paying the French and Europeans to pay, let us use these nearly 300 billion Russian assets to help Ukraine. And at the same time accelerate the process of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union,” he continued.
For socialists, Donald Trump’s America is no longer “the ally” of Europe
“Ukrainian brothers, Ukrainian sisters, you are not alone, and France will always be held alongside the free peoples,” said the president of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud, describing the meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in the oval office of “embusing”.
“Never since the creation of the United Nations, we have seen the United States taking sides against its allies,” he said, assuring that “America of President Trump is no longer our ally”. “We must say in the same movement to the Russian president and the American president that we will not accept for Ukraine a rapid peace which is not a lasting and just peace, with serious security guarantees,” he said.
“Europe must believe in its strength. And France must be the spearhead,” continued Boris Vallaud. The latter advocated “a large common loan of 500 billion euros” in Europe, with “magazines” budgetary rules, and asked, in France that the military programming law be “updated”. While affirming that “the socialists are ready in the event of a peace agreement in the fact that France participates in the battalions”, which could be deployed in Ukraine in order to guarantee the security of the country.
LFI calls to get out of “dependence” in the United States
“Here we are in a situation of dependence on the United States which is critical, and we will not come out without a firm will and a clear plan,” said the deputy La France Insoumise Aurélien Saintoul, citing the fact that “the United States provides most of France”, “the catapults that operate its aircraft carrier” or still evoking the storage of its data.
“We have entered an era where the main beneficiary of the international order from the Second World War has chosen to question it itself, with the aim of increasingly establishing its hegemony on the European continent where most of the States buy it, like a tribute against its protection, a substantial part if not the essential of their military equipment”, he still developed, calling the government to “bring out France.
Ecologists warn against a “Europe at the foot of the wall”
“The European Union must assert itself as a political force, which implies today, in this context, to assert itself as a military power,” said the president of the ecological group Cyrielle Chatelain, claiming that “for the first time since 1945, the fear of war is part of each of us”.
“Europe is at the foot of the wall,” she continued, saying that “since 2014, the EU has done nothing to strengthen its common defense, and has lazily recovered in the United States” “The ecological and social group supports a reinforced military commitment to Ukraine”, declaring itself favorable to the acceleration of the “implementation of a European defense”.
Cyrielle Chatelain has also called for the continuation of “financial weakening of Russia”, by “using the 200 billion Russian assets which sleep in our banks to finance the resistance and reconstruction of Ukraine”, by stopping “the purchase of Russian enriched gas, petroleum and uranium”, and “coming out of Russian fertilizer, importer “.