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‘No limits’ to Ukraine support, Macron tells France’s party leaders

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said France would not rule out any option to support Ukraine two years into Russia's invasion, leaders of several major French political parties said.

Published: 7 March 2024 16:44 CET

'No limits' to Ukraine support, Macron tells France's party leaders

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by Michal Cizek / AFP)

Speaking after the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, the party chiefs said the talks with Macron left them concerned, with some accusing him of using the conflict to boost his coalition’s standing ahead of crucial European elections this summer.

The president had last week stunned many in Europe by refusing to rule out the dispatch of Western ground troops to Ukraine, pointing to Russia’s hardening stance.

And earlier this week Macron urged Ukraine’s allies not to be “cowards” in supporting the ex-Soviet country to fight off the Russian invasion.

Some party leaders on Thursday said Macron advocated a “no limits” approach to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Green party leader Marine Tondelier recounted Macron saying Putin “obviously has no limits.”

She said it was “extremely worrying” to see Macron tell the meeting “we must show we have no limits,” too.

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, said he had pleaded with Macron “not to go to war with Russia.”

The president’s thinking includes “no limits and no red lines”, said Bardella.

Far-left heavyweight Manuel Bompard added: “I arrived worried and I left even more worried.”

‘Total solidarity’

France’s parliament will have a chance to vote on the country’s Ukraine strategy, including a bilateral security treaty signed with Kyiv last month.

Debates and non-binding votes will take place next Tuesday in the National Assembly lower house and in the Senate upper house on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Macron also met with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, pledging France’s “unwavering support” for her ex-Soviet country as tensions mount between Chisinau and pro-Russian separatists.

During the meeting the two signed a bilateral defence deal, as well as an “economic roadmap”, although no details were provided.

Later on Thursday, France was also set to host a video conference of nearly 30 countries including Ukraine, which will follow up on the initiatives discussed at an international Ukraine summit hosted by Macron last week.

Ahead of Thursday’s meeting with the opposition, Macron had spoken to his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace late on Wednesday.

Speaking to journalists after the talks, Hollande called for more aid for Ukraine as well as European unity.

“The only possible response is to show that we are with the Ukrainians in total solidarity, that we are giving them all the support they need, without taking part in any combat ourselves,” Hollande said.

Asked about the possibility of sending troops, the Socialist former president said: “My position on military issues is: the less we say, the better.”

Election battle

On Wednesday, government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot said that it was “quite obvious” that the RN was not aligned with Macron’s call to do everything to ensure Russia’s defeat.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has accused the RN of “supporting Russia more than Ukraine”.

The RN is the largest opposition party in France’s lower house of parliament and leads Macron’s alliance by a wide margin in European election polls ahead of the June 9th vote.

Most of Macron’s European allies have said they would not send troops to Ukraine, while French officials have insisted any such forces could be sent to back operations such as de-mining rather than fighting Russian forces.

In an apparent response to Macron, Putin has warned of a “real” risk of nuclear war and said “that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory.”

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.