French lawmakers have been swift to respond to recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron on not ruling out sending Western ground forces to Ukraine.
A flurry of vehement warnings flooded the Internet, with the social media accounts of a swathe of French politicians highlighting the dangers of such rhetoric.
“We are convinced that the defeat of Russia is indispensable to security and stability in Europe,” Macron told reporters after Paris hosted a meeting of some 20 European leaders to discuss the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday.
“There’s no consensus today to send in an official, endorsed manner troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing can be ruled out,” he said, adding, “We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win.”
Macron did not offer any details about which nations might be considering sending troops. A White House official was quoted by Reuters as denying any plans to send either US or NATO troops to Ukraine.
Former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen wrote on X (formerly Twitter) to warn of the need to realize the seriousness of such a statement.
“Emmanuel Macron plays the war leader but it is the lives of our children that he speaks about with such carelessness. It is peace or war in our country that is at stake,” she wrote on X, as per a translation into English.
Screenshot of X post by French politician Marine le Pen.
© Photo : MLP_officiel
Eric Ciotti, French politician and leader of the liberal-conservative The Republicans (LR) party, denounced the remarks by Macron as “fraught with terrible consequences,” and wondered whether they were “really well thought out.”
Screenshot of X post by Eric Ciotti, French politician, leader of the liberal-conservative The Republicans (LR) party.
© Photo : ECiotti
“War against Russia would be madness,” Jean-Luc Melenchon was cited as saying, adding that Macron’s statements were “irresponsible.”
Fabien Roussel, a politician who has served as national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) since 2018, posted on X that Macron was "leading France and Europe into a terribly dangerous war escalation! France must act for peace, certainly not blow on the embers of war."
Screenshot of X post by Fabien Roussel, National Secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF).
© Photo : Fabien_Roussel
At the opening of an international conference to support Ukraine, Macron also said that Russia "may attack" European countries.
These claims by the French president are designed to drag the French into a world war, the leader of the French Les Patriotes party, Florian Philippot, wrote on the social network X.
NATO countries disagree on sending troops to Ukraine and have not made a decision to do so, Polish President Andrzej Duda said after the meeting on Tuesday.
Earlier, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that some EU and NATO countries are mulling over the possibility of sending their military to Ukraine on the basis of bilateral agreements.
"For me, today's meeting [in Paris] is confirmation that the West's strategy in Ukraine has failed, but I want to be constructively prepared for it ... It follows from these arguments that a group of NATO and EU countries are considering [the option] to send their military to Ukraine on the basis of bilateral agreements," Fico told reporters after a meeting of the government and security council.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks about the possibility of putting boots on the ground in Ukraine elicited a cutting response from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Macron was presumably mulling "recreating the French SS division 'Charlemagne II' to defend President Volodymyr Zelensky’s bunker," the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram.
She pointed out that "one of the last defenders of the Reichstag, the Reich Chancellery and Adolf Hitler's bunker" were soldiers of that particular division.