Berliner Tageblatt - Le Pen party sparks furore with 'turn off tap' to Ukraine call

Le Pen is currently riding high in the polls at least for the first round in the tight battle to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, although her National Rally (RN) party has long faced accusations of being pro-Moscow.

"We would turn off the tap," RN vice president and mayor of the southern city of Perpignan Louis Aliot told BFMTV Thursday when asked if the party would keep up funding Ukraine against the Russian invasion if it came to power.

"The healthcare system, the education system, the entire economy -- everything is stretched to the limit. Yet money is found to keep funding weapons," he said.

"That's all well and good, but who is paying for all this? You also have to know when to stop a war."

Aliot, the former partner of Le Pen, emphasised that the RN "condemned the Russian aggression" but said the war had "weakened Europe".

One of Le Pen's leading rivals in the elections, centre-right politician Edouard Philippe who served as Macron's first prime minister, wrote on X Friday that "turning off the tap to Ukraine is serving Russia".

"Weakening Ukraine, as Marine Le Pen wishes, is threatening the security of Europe and France. I will do everything to prevent it," he said.

Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad described the RN as the "party of capitulation" and said "abandoning Ukraine means weakening the security of France and Europeans".

But Le Pen herself entered the fray, recalling that Philippe had himself hosted then Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev in his home city of Le Havre in 2019 while Macron had welcomed President Vladimir Putin to his summer residence the same year.

"The truth is simple: your international record is as dismal as your results in economic and budgetary matters," she said, lambasting the "slander" against the RN.

She said her party was pushing for a "diplomatic resolution of this abominable war".

Polls are projecting that Le Pen is on course to win the first round of the presidential polls and would then have a tight battle against Philippe in the second round, if he makes the run-off.

N.Fournier--BTB