Ugo Pascolo, with AFP
Marine Le Pen believes that France must stop delivering Caesar guns to Ukraine. For the RN deputy, each weapon sent to kyiv weakens the French army, since it is a resource that the “great mute” will miss. The finalist of the last two presidential elections fears that in the event of a conflict, the internal security of France will be jeopardized by a lack of equipment.
As the conflict in Ukraine enters its tenth month, should France stop delivering its powerful Caesar guns to kyiv? “Yes, I believe so”, replies Marine Le Pen. Guest of Laurence Ferrari in “Punchline” on Europe 1, the leader of the Rassemblement national deputies, explains: “Helping Ukraine as far as we can is something honorable but we cannot do it to the detriment of our own safety, the safety of our own people.” Eighteen Caesar guns, flagship of French artillery, with a range of 40 kilometers, have been sent to Ukraine and six others could follow soon.
“We cannot help Ukraine at the expense of our own security”
However, for the finalist of the last two presidential elections, it is necessary to correct the situation because “all the material that we are transferring today to Ukraine is material that is lacking in France”. More precisely, “either it lacks [à la France] because it had to equip our army, or it does not allow France to fulfill contracts that have been signed with other countries to which we had sold this equipment.”
And Marine Le Pen to drive home the point: “We cannot help Ukraine to the detriment of our own security. Because if tomorrow we needed the integrity of our army, it would not be in a state. […] War can happen, and we are not able, it seems, to carry it out to the level of efficiency that should be that of our army, of its know-how, of its human capacities. You can have the best men in the world. If they don’t have the material to be able to work, they are partly helpless.”
However, Marine Le Pen is not closed to aid from France to Ukraine. She is indeed in favor of “transmitting know-how, training, protective equipment, bulletproof vests” to kyiv.