France is heading toward presidential elections amid mass protests, public discontent, and intensifying political strife. Pro-Russian politicians, particularly Marine Le Pen – who has already stated her intention to withdraw support for Ukraine – could capitalize on these sentiments. At the same time, Paris must decide what its role will be in ending the war and whether Europe is prepared to ensure peace not only through diplomatic statements but also through a military presence.
Frédéric Petit, a member of the French National Assembly, told 24 Channel about the potential threat to continued support for Ukraine if Marine Le Pen wins, why France cannot allow a repeat of the 2014 scenario, and under what conditions a full ceasefire is possible. The politician also explained why Donald Trump is mistaken in his approach to Vladimir Putin and why, without Europe’s involvement, any peace agreement would lack sufficient guarantees.
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The Political Situation in France: Protests, Youth, and the Election Context
What has been happening in France in recent weeks, when the police sometimes couldn't control the situation? What is the current situation in France regarding these protests? What does this mean from a political standpoint, and how might it affect Ukraine?
Well, I think this protest was a very complex phenomenon. There are many factors – since we’re approaching the presidential election – and there’s a lot of what I’d call “ dissatisfaction in France.” Some people are protesting the cost of living due to rising gas prices and so on. There are people who are politically opposed, who want to change the president, and so on. But that didn’t really work out. Everyone acted on their own, and then there were these demands from young people. I think they have their own legitimacy.
By the way, the widespread riots in France have caused retailers losses of over 1 billion euros, and total losses – including downtime and lost profits in the run-up to Christmas – could reach 2 billion dollars. Due to the constant threat of new protests and damage to thousands of stores, businesses – including well-known luxury brands and supermarkets – are being forced to close or limit their hours of operation.
Okay, it’s clear that regions and departments sometimes don’t take their responsibility for school buildings and learning conditions very seriously. And there was this protest by young people in high schools, right? In high school and among slightly younger students. And that served as a spark, and then everyone joined them.
Some of these protests were legitimate, as I’ve already said, and not just on the part of the youth. And there were also two phenomena that led to chaos in some cities. First, politicians – some very radical politicians – who want to play on these emotions, promising people: “With me, it’ll be paradise; I guarantee you everything,” and so on.
Then they started jostling and saying dangerous things: on the left – about the police; on the right – even racist remarks claiming that these young people were all Arabs, and the police were too, as if to say, “They’re all terrible guys.”
Member of the French National Assembly on French policy regarding Ukraine: video
And these were politicians, as well as obvious thieves, who took advantage of the situation to loot stores and steal goods. And in one or two cases, the police weren’t well-informed and weren’t prepared for such actions. That means they set fire to City Hall in Limoges.
Stores. All right, things are calming down now. The second weekend passed peacefully. All right, no problems. And the second weekend was politically different, because everyone realized that you can’t lump everything together – there can’t be one big demonstration with hundreds of different demands; other demonstrations were more segmented, and that made things clearer. Yes, the prime minister held discussions with students and young people.
Well, I think things are calming down now. Of course, this is already being exploited politically. It’s at the center of the debate: What should we do for young people? What should we do about prices, the cost of living, and so on? But these are normal political debates right now. There were debates in parliament. I wasn’t there, but last week there were debates in parliament, as required by the Constitution.
How will the riots in France affect the presidential election?
How might this affect next year’s presidential election in France? After all, Marine Le Pen, Mélenchon, and others hardly stand a chance of winning.
Well, these events serve as a kind of ammunition for Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon in their political game. That’s obvious. As for me and my party – we believe the election is still a long way off, and right now we want to get to work. We want to bring back to the election campaign and the debates the truly important issues that are typical of a normal campaign in France. That means Ukraine, young people, the country’s financial situation, defense, even civil defense, and so on.
We’re focused on putting these issues on the agenda for discussion. This means asking each candidate: What are you actually saying? What do you really think? For example, if Marine Le Pensays, “I want to cut ties with Ukraine,” as she has stated, we want to find out and ask her: What does that mean? Specifically, what does that mean? Is that clear? What will you do, and so on.
And then we can… From their perspective, they believe these events have helped them. From our perspective, we believe this event will clarify the situation if we can take a realistic stance – calm and precise. All right. As for public opinion, I think this will be forgotten in three weeks, because… you know, there’s this constant noise. People think one thing, then another.
For me, it’s more like… It’s dangerous, but not too serious right now. It’s what I sometimes call crazy chatter, you know?
It means we’re talking about everything under the sun just to get votes. For me, it’s important to talk about Ukraine, young people, public finances – to focus on that and have a president, the next president, who knows what we’re going to do together and discusses it with the nation. That’s the main, main issue for me.
In my opinion, neither Marine Le Pen nor Mélenchon are good candidates. I think the future winner is unknown at this point, but that’s not a problem. I think someone will emerge. I believe that my country is a wise nation, and if we manage to bring real issues to the table for public debate, we will have wonderful people in France who will be able to lead the country.
Assessment of the U.S. Decision on Russian Diesel Fuel
Let’s also talk about Ukraine and the recent U.S. decision to lift sanctions on Russian diesel fuel. We’re still in the midst of cooperation visits, but we’ve had a temporary ceasefire in the latest region, which has been properly observed by both sides. However, the Russians tried to portray this as a propaganda victory. How do you view this, and can France influence President Trump’s position on Ukraine?
Well, thank you for that question. This is a very, very interesting point, in my view. To be honest, my overall analysis over the past few weeks is that… Despite what he’s trying to show, I think Putin isn’t all that confident in this strategy.
I think the Duma elections didn’t go as smoothly as usual. The decision – the direct decision to… the military decision to attack civilians in Ukraine. To me, all of this represents a kind of “end-of-the-road” decision, you know? But I’m not there, and for me, this is a kind of intuition. What’s happening in Moscow is very serious to me, you know?
When a guy from the world’s leading country, the world’s leading democracy, tells Putin that he’s a humanist. For me, that was horrifying. Of course, all these shenanigans, these transactions, this “"accommodating" policy” – to me, it’s a disaster, frankly speaking.
I know France has reacted. Can we influence Trump? Can anyone influence Trump? I don’t know. Maybe someone…
Emmanuel Macron?
He’s having discussions with him. I think he has a certain perspective. I think Trump respects him.
But right now he’s too focused on politics, on the domestic situation.
Macron knows he won’t be a candidate, and I think that’s an opportunity because, despite what you might think from abroad, Macron is focused on France’s role in the world. Frankly speaking, this may not be very noticeable. But beneath the surface – for example, you know about the decision from July 13.
Of course, that was a victory for France in terms of protecting Ukraine’s civilian population, and something new emerged after that; now we have to respond to something new with this decision in August. But he’s taking action – perhaps not publicly, not in the spotlight – but he’s working toward that goal.
I don’t know if Trump’s decision can be changed. Trump is a mystery to me. I don’t understand. Because even this… you can’t lift sanctions partially; to me, it’s just a deal. And what became an explanation for me – the situation in Oleshky – if we’re to emphasize this – I’m sure the Russians presented it as an act of kindness on their part.
They explain that we, they say, were good people who offered to save poor people, even though first and foremost – they’re holding them hostage, they’ve been blocking them, and they’ve been killing them whenever they found any Western aid in their homes.
I know this because I’m often on the ground. There are other villages that aren’t in as tragic a situation as Oleshky, but they’re in exactly the same conditions, except that people there aren’t dying of starvation.
But you know, Hola Prystan and Lazurne – it’s exactly the same thing: civilians are being held captive to protect the military. Okay, they aren’t free; they’re trapped. Right now they have food and water, but if problems arose, they wouldn’t have those supplies, and the situation would be exactly the same.
And the fact that people from Oleshkyis now safe in Ukraine is a positive development, but I would like – and I need to explain this to my colleagues in France – that this is not a victory for Russia; I think it’s a coincidence – it was Putin’s ploy during negotiations on lifting sanctions and so on.
I have to say one thing: I am very grateful to Mr. Lubintsi, because I believe that, first of all, his statements regarding this situation were very clear, very measured, and very good, and he has the courage to be there. To me, this is a good sign, and I think he is a true Ukrainian.
Are we close to a full ceasefire?
From your perspective, how close are we to a full ceasefire, given that President Zelenskyy says he is ready to meet with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Miami? President Trump says he’s ready to meet with both leaders and strike a deal. He says, “Let’s strike a deal right now.” How close are we to that moment, given that people in Ukraine are also exhausted?
Yes. It’s a very difficult question, because it’s a race of sorts between exhaustion – between Ukraine becoming increasingly exhausted; you know, I can feel that here, which is good.2–3 hours of daylight in Kyiv – that’s the problem. It’s a major problem, and it’s a race against what I mentioned earlier – namely, I have the sense that Putin is no longer as strong and self-assured as he used to be. And I think there’s a kind of competition going on between these two factors right now.
One of my colleagues – I’ll take the liberty of saying this, and I do think so to some extent – but I had 10 Democratic colleagues who agreed to come with me to Ukraine a month ago. It was very interesting for them. Someone said: members of Parliament. Members of Parliament, yes. We’re the only party that did this, and they trusted me. I was proud of that.
But one of them said he had a feeling that the winter would be terrible, but that it would be the last winter. And I think I’m not far from thinking the same way. This means, I think, that if we can get through this, if we can hold out – you know, when the Russian Ministry of Defense announced this new military strategy, they called it… they’re committing a war crime and calling it a new military tactic, you see. I don’t know, maybe now they’ll be teaching in military schools that you have to bomb maternity hospitals and things like that.
But when they first told the military – the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Ministry of Defense – that the front line was static. This is the first time they’ve acknowledged that the Ukrainians aren’t breaking, and so on, and so on. And for me, this is a small sign that perhaps something is changing, even in their false narrative and so on.
It’s a race. It’s a race. In any case, I can’t imagine how anyone could say right now that Ukrainians or Ukraine will give up. I feel that the Ukrainian people’s resolve is stronger now than ever before. Even if they’re exhausted, even if we feel like, “All right, guys, okay, let’s meet in Lviv because we can’t meet here by candlelight, okay?” By candlelight. But even so, I can’t imagine how they could give up. As far as I’m concerned.
And then. Well, if there’s some kind of agreement now, we’ll see – which is always my question, and also Zelenskyy’s question. It shouldn’t just be “an agreement between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine.” It also has to be Europe, and we can’t accept – and Europe has to be involved – that if there’s a ceasefire, it’s clear to us, more than clear, that we need to have people and troops here to guarantee the ceasefire. It won’t be a ceasefire.
Any volunteers?
Yes,coalition of volunteersmust be integrated, and immediately here – immediately here. As far as I’m concerned, we can discuss exactly where.
French Aid and Public Support for Ukraine in Europe
But is France ready to deploy troops? What if we have a presidential election and Marine Le Pen wins?
First of all, I hope that Marine Le Pen doesn’t win, nor does Mélenchon. It’s clear to me that this will be a problem – a common problem. But even if Marine Le Pen wins. Remember what Meloni said. She had a very ambitious agenda, and then she changed it because of reality, okay?
If you give in on Ukraine, if you… First of all, she doesn’t have full authority, because there’s a parliament, and there are decisions. For example, she can’t change the military law that we voted on for five years.
And this martial law act includes not only funding, industry, and so on, but also a description of the threat – and it’s clear that the description of the threat is in this year’s law, which was passed by a majority of parliament, including her own deputies. So it will be difficult for her to implement everything she’s announced.
However, I don’t see it that way; as far as I’m concerned, there is no ceasefire, and there are no new forces here, because we know what happened in 2014. That was not a ceasefire. That was not a ceasefire.
And one last question for you: Is France ready to continue supporting Ukraine with money, weapons, and everything else, and what is your message to the Ukrainian people in light of your personal visit to Ukraine?
Yes, France is ready. And most French people – perhaps not on TV, not on the street, not on the bus – but most French people support Ukraine. I meet with them. I’ve been traveling a lot since returning from Ukraine. I’m here to develop and work on civil society and relations, and I see that they’re growing. Even now, they’re growing.
Of course, the French are a little scared, but I’m working on that by telling them that they can go to Ukraine. Right now, I’m developing a project – a kind of workshop – an initial meeting for French and Ukrainian youth. I believe it’s very important to start with these topics so that Ukrainian youth can connect with their French counterparts and begin building what they’ll have to tackle in 20 years.
Because in 20 years, I won’t be here anymore, but the young people will be, and they’ll have to resolve all these issues. It will be a long road, but I think it’s worth fighting for.
Is Europe ready to accept Ukraine as a member of the European Union? Not in 20 years, but in 15.
You know,European Unionis a strange organization. And the European Union isn’t obligated to accept anyone. That’s not how it works. Ukraine is a candidate. And when you’re a candidate, you can be accepted if you meet certain conditions, right? Ukraine is working on that right now.
And I think maybe we should flip the question around. When you see all the benefits Ukraine is creating right now – and even agriculture is an issue, because we’ll face challenges since Ukrainian agriculture is larger than ours – but perhaps it’s Ukraine that should embrace Europe.
All right, because Ukraine will become a force, a source of strength for everyone, and to me, we’re one family. We’re one family; we’re divided, but we’re one family, and when we’re in one family, conflicts and disagreements can arise, but we’ve been one family for centuries. All right, it’s been centuries, and if we’re one family, we can… this is an impetus, a shared interest in being together and trying to find a way to be together.
Perhaps it will be the signing of a treaty – a European treaty – perhaps something else, perhaps other things, but there is much that Ukraine can offer Europe.
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