the essential
As the first act of the legislative elections approaches on Sunday, the National Rally, increasingly confident in its victory, issued a warning on Wednesday June 26 on the distribution of powers over defense and diplomacy in the event of cohabitation.
Marine Le Pen indicated, Thursday June 27, in an interview published in The Telegram. Le Télégramme, that Emmanuel Macron would no longer be the sole decision-maker of the French strategic and military position in the event of victory of the National Rally in the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. “Chief of the armed forces, for the president, it is an honorary title since it is the Prime Minister who holds the purse strings,” declared the leader of the RN.
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The RN candidate in the two previous presidential elections believes that the party will obtain “an absolute majority” in the vote and that the future Prime Minister will then necessarily be Jordan Bardella. And the latter intends to weigh and influence France’s military choices, particularly in Ukraine “Jordan (Bardella) does not intend to pick a quarrel with him [à Emmanuel Macron, NDLR], but he put red lines. On Ukraine, the president will not be able to send troops.” In various interventions, the current head of state had refused to “exclude” the sending of French soldiers to Ukraine, provoking an outcry from the opposition .
He was initially warmly welcomed before seeing allies – the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Baltic States in particular – join him. Some observers considered that the question was no longer whether, but when, European soldiers will be deployed, welcoming a “breaking of the taboo” and pleading to maintain the “strategic ambiguity” which consists of hiding from one’s enemy what the ‘we are not ready to do.
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During a presentation in Paris of his program in the context of the legislative elections, Jordan Bardella indicated on Monday that he was, on the contrary, making “the sending of (French) troops to Ukrainian soil” a “very clear red line”.
During the three previous cohabitations of the Fifth Republic, the president had retained broad powers in matters of international policy and defense, in the name of an interpretation of the Constitution granting a “reserved domain” to the head of state. The Constitutional Council also recalls on its website that, in the event of cohabitation, the President of the Republic retains “a central role in certain areas (Defense, Foreign Affairs or Justice)”. Thus, the head of state always retains the power to negotiate and ratify treaties, essential strategic (and military) tools.
