The Prime Minister returned to the comments of Marine Le Pen, who earlier in the week considered that the role of head of the armed forces of the President of the Republic was only “honorary.”
An outburst that continues to cause controversy. Invited this Friday, June 28, on BFMTV-RMC, two days before the first round of the legislative elections, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal returned to the remarks of Marine Le Pen, who considered on Wednesday that the title of “chief of the armed forces” of the President of the Republic was “honorary”. “It is the Prime Minister who holds the purse strings,” she assured.
“It’s serious what Marine Le Pen did. Do you realize the message sent to the world, to foreign powers, some of which threaten our interests?”, tackles the tenant of Matignon.
“A serious turning point”
According to Gabriel Attal, “the chain of operation” at the top of the State is “very clear” and allows “a clear message to be sent to the whole world”: “If France is threatened there will be no debates or blockages, it will always defend itself.”
“What Marine Le Pen did is a serious turning point,” he storms. “They are not elected, they consider that it is perhaps already done, and they are already rushing to the nuclear button.”
“They are already starting to say ‘we are the ones who are going to take over all the prerogatives of the head of state who will no longer be head of the armed forces'”, he adds. And Gabriel Attal delivered a final blow, this time directly towards Jordan Bardella. “Perhaps Jordan Bardella, 28, who has never managed an administration, considers that from now on he will also be head of the armed forces,” he finishes.
Le Pen specifies
For his part, from Brussels, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron denounced the “arrogance” of the National Rally which according to him has “already distributed” all the government posts even before the legislative elections. “Who are they to explain what the Constitution should be?”, he insisted.
The likely candidate for the 2027 presidential election, however, qualified this statement a few hours later on X (ex-Twitter), referring to “the reserved domain of the President of the Republic”. But she maintained that the head of government has “through budgetary control the means to oppose” the sending of troops abroad.
This Friday morning, on Europe 1, she explained that she was relying on “article 20 of the Constitution”, which states that “the government (…) has the administration and the armed forces”.
