"PARIS -- After securing her party's biggest gains in elections to France's National Assembly, Marine Le Pen is now reflecting on whether she can steer the country toward what she calls a strategic midpoint between the U.S., Russia and China.
Her hard-right National Rally party is the single largest opposition party after securing 89 seats in June's election, helping to deprive President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party of a majority. That makes her one of the more prominent voices in Western Europe to question the way the region's security arrangements work.
Specifically, Ms. Le Pen said in an interview she wants France to adopt a policy of "equidistance" between the U.S., Russia and China that allows France to maneuver independently on the world stage. She has called for France to withdraw from the unified command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In doing so, she echoes right-wing leaders to the east, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in questioning whether Western military support for Ukraine risks drawing the West into a direct confrontation with Russia over a military operation that she says Kyiv has no chance of winning on its own. Ms. Le Pen said France and other Western powers should instead push for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
"Few people actually believe that a military victory is possible against Russia," she said.
There is little short-term prospect of France changing direction. While Mr. Macron warned that NATO was undergoing "brain death" in 2019, the alliance has strengthened recently, particularly since sanctions Russia intensified. In the past week, the French president has announced fresh funding for Ukraine's effort and pledged to deliver new air-defense systems.
Ms. Le Pen, however, is hopeful of building on her party's political gains this year. National Rally, she said, can use the additional funding to pay off a Russian loan that has haunted Ms. Le Pen in election after election. The party also can now afford to recruit hundreds of new staff members after qualifying for about 10 million euros, or $9.8 million, in state funding on the back of June's election performance.
Just having more legislators visible will help push its agenda, which also includes limiting immigration, she says.
People "can watch them every day on TV, defending our ideas," said Ms. Le Pen. "Maybe it wasn't the case before, and that's what we lacked in the presidential elections," she added, referring to her loss to Mr. Macron in April's vote.
Ms. Le Pen now aims to cast off the party's reputation for rabble-rousing, exhorting her new lawmakers to avoid controversy. For years, she has tried to play down the legacy of her father, firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen, who once described Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history." She recently marked the 50th anniversary of National Rally with an understated gathering in the basement of the National Assembly. Her father didn't attend.
One question looming over the party is whether Ms. Le Pen intends to follow through on comments she made before the presidential election, saying she wouldn't run again if she lost. Mr. Macron won by a 17-point margin. Whether she runs in 2027, she said, depends on whether there are "exceptional circumstances that would mean I am the only one who can possibly win."
During the election, Mr. Macron painted her as a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Macron hammered Ms. Le Pen over a 9 million euro loan the party contracted with the Moscow-based First Czech-Russian Bank in 2014, saying the debt made her beholden to Moscow.
Ms. Le Pen says the loan hasn't influenced her stance on Russia or military operation in Ukraine, which she condemns.
Moving on from her father's legacy is perhaps the toughest challenge facing Ms. Le Pen, analysts say. National Rally's old guard holds sway over the party, while many of its new lawmakers have little political experience. The group includes a housekeeper, a retired grocer and a delivery driver.
"They have to make these people act as a cohesive group, and that will be very difficult," said Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist." [1]
1. World News: Le Pen Seeks Middle Path Between U.S. and Russia
Bisserbe, Noemie; Meichtry, Stacy.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 15 Oct 2022: A.8.
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