Marine Le Pen talks about France’s withdrawal from NATO’s command structures. Commentary by Alexander Smaller and Anthony Dudek

Marine Le PenThe far-right French presidential candidate said on Wednesday that if she won the second round of elections, she would support France’s withdrawal from NATO’s command structures. And she stressed that she “will not abandon the application of Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty on Mutual Protection between members of the Alliance.” Emmanuel Macron’s rival also said that when the Russo-Ukrainian war ends and a peace treaty is resolved, it will support “the implementation of a strategic rapprochement between NATO and Russia”.

Watch the entire call on TVN24 GO

Alexandre Smaller, former president of Stéphane Batory assessed that “from the point of view of the interests of France, Europe and Poland, the arrival of Marine Le Pen to power is very dangerous.”

Leaving NATO command structures, he said, “is independence from the decisions of others, that is, to determine the place of fighting in France for French soldiers.”

This is, of course, very dangerous when it comes to NATO. He added that like what you want to do with the European Union, it is in effect disrupting the European Union.

According to Professor Anthony Dudek, political scientist and historian, “If Marine Le Pen wins the presidential election, it will be a blow, perhaps not even at NATO but in the European Union.” – Strong, perhaps the largest in the history of the Union so far, even bigger than Brexit – he added.

But he said he estimates Le Pen’s chances of winning at a few per cent, given the sympathy of those who pulled out” in the first round.

“There are mostly leftist or mediator candidates, so their voters will vote for Macron, not Le Pen,” he added.

According to Smaller, “It’s not very straightforward.” – He said that a large part of left-wing voters are protest votes, these are populist voices, and these are people for whom Le Pen’s social policy is often closer to the policies of some left-wing parties.

He stressed that “this would end in the struggle for the votes of the left, especially the more serious leftist candidate, the radical left (Jean-Luc) Mélenchon, who received more than 20 percent (the number of votes), only one less than Marine Le Pen.”

Smaller said polls said “about 40 percent of his voters would be willing to vote for president, but more than 20 percent for Le Pen.”

– Here, changes can also occur unexpectedly. Not surprisingly, Macron is now more active than he was before the first round – in his assessment.

Emmanuel Macron, who is running for re-election, received 27.85 percent in the first round. votes, and Marine Le Pen – 23.15 percent.