Presidential: Zelensky believes that Le Pen “made a mistake”

Lukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday invited Marine Le Pen, a French presidential candidate accused of closeness to Russia, to admit that she “made a mistake” and wished not to “lose” her relations with the French president, candidate too, Emmanuel Macron. “If the candidate understands that she was wrong, […] our relationship could change,” the Ukrainian president told BFMTV in a remote interview from kyiv.

But, added the Ukrainian head of state, “I am not convinced that I have the right, today, to influence what is happening in your country”. Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, candidates for the second round of the French presidential election on Sunday, are to face each other on Wednesday evening during a televised debate. “I want to say that of course I have relations with Emmanuel Macron and I would not want to lose them,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.

Le Pen banned from Ukraine

Marine Le Pen was banned from Ukraine in January 2017 after defending the annexation of Crimea, a region of Ukraine, by Russia in 2014, deemed illegal by the international community. The RN candidate condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but she again pleaded last Wednesday for a “strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia” once the war is over. The far-right candidate had been received by Vladimir Putin during the 2017 presidential election, and his party continues to repay a loan of 9 million euros to a creditor linked to former Russian soldiers.

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