Le Pen tries to distance herself from Russia and rejects Putin’s explicit support: “These are provocations”

The leader of the National Rally (RN), a French far-right party, Marine Le Penhas described this Thursday as “provocations by the Russians” and as “interference” the explicit support that the Kremlin has shown him to the second round of legislative elections taking place this Sunday in the country.

“I am not responsible for this kind of Russian provocation against France and against Emmanuel Macron,” Le Pen stressed in an interview with BFMTV when asked about the statements made by Russian authorities on Wednesday in which they supported RN’s line, Efe reported.

Above all, he complained that leaders of other parties blame him for this, such as the socialist candidate for the European elections, Raphael Glucksmannwho in another interview said that the RN is “a fifth column of Vladimir Putin”the Russian president.

“In a democracy, it is shameful” that it is used “that violence” and be treated as “pariahs” “to the RN voters,” denounced the leader of the extreme right, who assured that if they come to power, “an RN government will not treat the opposition like this.”

At the origin of this controversy is a message from the spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry on the social network X in which he stressed that “the French people seek a sovereign foreign policy that serves their national interests and “to break with the dictates of Washington and Brussels”.

The spokesman added, in a clear allusion in particular to French President Emmanuel Macron, that “French leaders will not be able to ignore these profound changes in attitudes of the vast majority of citizens.”

The links, at least in the past, of RN and Le Pen with Russia and the Putin regime have been evident, although The far-right party has distanced itself following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Efe recalls.

However, although it now advocates supporting Ukraine so that it can defend itself, the party has stressed that if it comes to power it will not authorize the sending of troops or instructors to Ukrainian territory, as Macron has suggested, nor the delivery of long-range missiles with which kyiv could strike deep into Russia.