After the National Assembly on Tuesday, the Senate largely approved the security agreement between France and Ukraine on Wednesday, despite certain reservations from the upper house where the presidential camp is in the minority. Senators voted 293 to 22 in favor of the French strategy of supporting kyiv in a non-binding vote. In a hemicycle which has no elected representatives from La France insoumise and only three from the National Rally, the declaration of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal did not give rise to debates as lively as at the Palais Bourbon, where the RN abstained. while LFI voted against.
The immense majority of senators The Republicans, the leading political force at the Luxembourg Palace, voted in favor, despite six oppositions and four abstentions. Only the communist group voted against. “Turning our back on Ukraine would mean turning our back on our values, betraying the trust of our allies, showing weakness,” said Gabriel Attal at the opening of the debates, recalling as the day before that the conflict was entering into a “changing moment”, in the presence of the Ukrainian ambassador to France in the stands, receiving a standing ovation from all the benches of the Senate.
A relatively sparse hemicycle
In a relatively sparse hemicycle, the controversial remarks of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on the hypothesis of sending Western troops on the ground were particularly at the heart of the speeches. “These changing declarations, these spins have had the result of isolating France, dividing and disconcerting our allies,” launched the leader of the Republicans in the Senate Bruno Retailleau, also warning of the hypothesis of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO which “challenged” it. “Our vote is a vote of support for Ukraine, in no case of support for the government,” he added.
For his part, Gabriel Attal maintained the government line: “We do not set any limits in the face of a Russia which does not set any,” he said. A statement which would have “deserved more precision”, regretted the centrist Philippe Folliot. The socialist Rachid Temal invited the government to “review the military programming law” to “take exceptional production measures” of munitions. More offensive, the communist Cécile Cukierman castigated “a defense treaty marked by the worrying absence of clear limits on the aspect of military cooperation” and a France “ridiculed” by the presidential position.
Concluded for a period of ten years, the agreement with Ukraine includes a strengthening of military cooperation, particularly in the areas of artillery and air defense. Emmanuel Macron will speak on Ukraine on Thursday in the 8 p.m. news on TF1 and France 2.