Le Pen: France will not leave NATO while war in Ukraine continues

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PARIS — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen still wants to take France out of NATO’s integrated command — but won’t do so while Russia’s war in Ukraine still rages on.

“As long as there is a war on Europe’s doorstep, this is not the time to take action in that regard, but of course my will to do so remains,” the National Rally leader told POLITICO on Thursday at the Playbook Paris Live summit .

Le Pen is the front-runner in next spring’s high-stakes presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron, according to polls.

She and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon both want Paris to leave the military alliance, raising alarm bells at NATO headquarters about France’s future defense policy.

The National Rally has long advocated withdrawing from NATO’s integrated command, but Le Pen’s comments indicate a slight shift in her position. Back in May, she said France would pull out during her first term, without referring to the war in Ukraine, while the party’s president Jordan Bardella wanted to wait for a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.

Le Pen and Bardella are campaigning as a ticket that would see the 31-year-old become prime minister.

Le Pen also said that France should not enter into a war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power, and rejected the notion that it is currently in a conflict with Moscow despite the Kremlin’s hybrid attacks against European nations.

By publishing a statement condemning Russia last week, Le Pen and Bardella sought to fend off attacks from center-right and center-left opponents who have frequently portrayed the party as an ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

However, Le Pen repeated her pledge Thursday to stop financial help to Ukraine if she wins next year’s presidential election.

“We can train their soldiers and their military leadership, and provide them with military aid. We can no longer provide financial assistance to Ukraine, and we regret that,” she said.

However, she did not push back against the Coalition of the Willing, a group led by France and the U.K. that aims to provide a military presence in Ukraine once the war ends.

“A potential peacekeeping force that’s actually quite similar to UN peacekeepers seems entirely feasible to me. And if the Coalition of the Willing is one of the conditions for negotiating a ceasefire, then I would obviously be in favor of moving forward with this proposal,” she told POLITICO.