Emmanuel Macron accused, Wednesday, April 20, Marine Le Pen of “depending on Russian power” and “of Vladimir Putin” for having “contracted a loan from a Russian bank”, during the debate before the second round of the presidential election . “You talk to your banker when you talk about Russia, that’s the problem, Madame Le Pen,” said the candidate president during a tense exchange devoted to the war in Ukraine. “Mr. Macron, it’s false and it’s quite dishonest,” reacted Marine Le Pen. “I am an absolutely and totally free woman. »
The candidate considered that it was “no coincidence that, 5 years ago, Russia had intervened in the campaign” for the presidential election to his detriment. “You have always been ambiguous on the subject because you are not in a power-to-power situation, that you cannot properly defend the interests of France on this subject because your interests are linked to people close to the Russian power,” he added, addressing his opponent for Sunday’s second round. The candidate had been received with great fanfare by Vladimir Putin during the 2017 campaign and his party continues to repay a loan of 9 million euros from a creditor linked to former Russian soldiers.
Marine Le Pen welcomes “the efforts” of France to find peace
“It takes a long time to reimburse and we reimburse under the control of the National Commission for Campaign Accounts”, which “is extremely severe and rigorous”, specified Marine Le Pen. Emmanuel Macron also criticized her for having been “one of the first European politicians, from 2014, to recognize the result of the annexation of Crimea” by Russia. “Crimea should not have posed a lot of problems for you either since you received Mr. Poutine with great pomp in Versailles”, then “in Brégançon on your vacation spot”, replied Marine Le Pen. And Emmanuel Macron replied: “I received Mr. Poutine as a head of state, but not as a banker, Madame Le Pen. »
The RN candidate expressed her “solidarity and [sa] absolute compassion with the Ukrainian people” and considered that “the aggression of which Ukraine has been the victim is inadmissible”. She welcomed “the efforts” developed by the president “to try to find, in the name of France, the means, the voices of peace”. Emmanuel Macron repeated that his priority was to “avoid the widening of the conflict, because we are no one’s vassals, and to gradually bring Russia to its senses”.