“You are depending on the Russian government,” Macron attacked Le Pen during a heated debate.
Paris:
French President Emmanuel Macron attacked far-right rival Marine Le Pen for her links to Russia during Wednesday’s televised presidential debate, accusing her of “dependency” on the Kremlin.
“You depend on the Russian government and you depend on Mr. Putin,” Macron said, referring to a loan Le Pen’s party agreed to with a Russian-Czech bank he said was “close to the government.” Russia”.
Le Pen replied that she was “a completely and completely free woman” and said the loan was “a matter of the public knowing”.
“That’s because no French bank wants to lend me money,” she replied.
The exchange was the first major clash between the two sides, with Macron also highlighting Le Pen’s decision to recognize Crimea as Russian after the Ukrainian territory was annexed by the Kremlin in 2014.
“Under international law, we rarely recognize … territories that have been taken over by force,” he said.
Le Pen stressed that she supports all sanctions against Moscow announced since Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered the attack on Ukraine on 24 February and that she supports the supply of weapons to Ukraine. .
“The aggression that Ukraine has been a victim of is unacceptable,” she said.
Le Pen made waves last week when she proposed closer ties between the Western military alliance NATO and Russia after the war in Ukraine ended.
She also reaffirmed her intention to repeat France’s 1966 move to leave NATO’s combined military command, while still adhering to the important Article 5 of mutual defense.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
