French far-right Marine Le Pen, this Wednesday (13), advocated “strategic rapprochement (…) between NATO and Russia once the war between Russia and Ukraine is over and a peace agreement is reached”.

“This is for the good of France and Europe, but I also believe that the United States had nothing to do with the emergence of a Sino-Russian deal,” said the French presidential candidate, presenting his vision for the country’s foreign policy today.

Le Pen stressed that he did not want to “subdue neither Moscow nor the United States”.

In the 2017 campaign, the leader of the National Rally (RN) was endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and is often accused by his opponents of a certain affinity for the Russian government. His press conference this Wednesday was interrupted by a leftist collective who denounced him for his “discomfort” towards Putin.

The candidate claims that these charges against him are “particularly unjustified”.

“I am completely independent of any affiliation, of any power, of any nationality, of any government,” he said.

Marine Le Pen condemned the Russian invasion and was in favor of France welcoming refugees from Ukraine. However, he refuses to accept economic sanctions against Moscow, so as not to “harm” the purchasing power of the French.

And today he denied President Emmanuel’s accusation that he wanted to remove France from the European Union (EU).

“We are clearly European,” he assured, emphasizing that “French Brexit” is not on his agenda.

However, the candidate said he favored the transformation of the EU into “an alliance of European nations (…) that respects free and sovereign nations”, not a “threat and blackmail Europe”.

On April 24, France will face Macron in the second round of the presidential election. According to three polls released Wednesday, Macron is expanding his lead over Le Pen and appears intent on voting between 53% and 55% for now, compared to between 45% and 47% for his far-right rival.

The two candidates intensified their campaign activities from Monday the 11th and will face each other in a televised debate on the 20th.

Both are trying, above all, to win over the voters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical left, who won 22% of the vote in the first round (10) last Sunday.