Le Pen on Saturday also vied for the general’s heritage, pointing her finger at Europe’s apparent powerlessness amid the waves of chaos coming from Washington and Moscow.
“What does yesterday’s conversation actually shows?” she asked, referring to Trump’s browbeating of Zelenskyy the day before in the Oval Office, which she sought to downplay. “It is that the Americans decide whether to end or continue the war. And that, for European nations, is a considerable slap in the face,” she said.
“It is an absolutely major diplomatic failure, a loss of influence that is now obvious to everyone,” Le Pen said.
But unlike Macron, Le Pen is adamant that more Europe is not the answer.
Instead, she vowed to fight any attempt at making an integrated European defense a reality, something that could prove a serious roadblock to the EU’s ambitions should Le Pen prevail in the country’s presidential election.
“As usual, the European Union is using a crisis to get itself additional powers,” Le Pen said. “I can see that they would like this conflict to continue, so that they can take over responsibility for defense. I don’t accept this.”
