But what the hell was she doing at this table? On Wednesday evening, Marine Le Pen made a surprising appearance at a dinner organized by the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet at the Hôtel de Lassay. This dinner was held on the occasion of the visit to Paris of Ruslan Stefanchuk, president of the Ukrainian Rada (Parliament), close to Volodymyr Zelensky and member of the defense and national security council of his country.
The former presidential candidate, who for more than a decade maintained close political and financial ties with the regime of Vladimir Putin, was invited as president of the RN group. Nevertheless: the presence of the woman who, just the day before, provoked the protest of the deputies for having claimed in the Hemicycle to have “always condemned the invasion of the sovereign territory of Ukraine”did not fail to surprise several guests. “It would have been curious, even quite inadmissible, for Marine Le Pen, president of a large group of deputies, not to have been invited”nuance however one of them.
Zemmour, Fillon, Le Pen… How Moscow weaves its web in France
Around the table, in addition to the frontist leader, a dozen personalities took part in these agapes which, several of them, depict as a moment relating more to the “conviviality” that of the ” Politics “. In addition to a handful of diplomats, Yaël Braun-Pivet had chosen to bring together a few figures from the Assembly: the quaestor Eric Woerth, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Jean-Louis Bourlanges) as well as his counterparts from European Affairs (Pieyre- Alexandre Anglade) and national defense (Thomas Gassilloud), the president of the Libertés et Territoires group Bertrand Pancher or the Ile-de-France deputy Benjamin Haddad, present as head of the Franco-Ukrainian friendship group in the Assembly. In the absence of Mathilde Panot, the rebellious were, for their part, represented by the vice-president of the Assembly Caroline Fiat.
Between a scallop mousseline and a foie gras pie, the exchanges were ” rich “ and “instructive”, it is reported. A plethora of subjects were discussed: the difficulty of access to care and the state of hospitals in Ukraine, the daily life of parliamentarians in kyiv or the evolution of Parliament since the annexation of Crimea and Dombass in 2014. “There was still some discomfort”says a witness.
“She is there everywhere and all the time”
Flanked by RN Vice-President of the Assembly Sébastien Chenu, Marine Le Pen – who, in general opinion, was very discreet during this dinner – at one point broke her silence to address Ruslan Stefanchuk. “She asked him in essence: you are telling us that we should no longer buy Russian gas, but how are the countries that need it going to do it? Adding that the Ukrainians continued to buy Russian gas”, says one participant. The president of the Rada, on this subject, cut short, correcting Marine Le Pen and specifying that the Ukrainians had stopped buying Russian gas for their consumption. Since the annexation of Crimea, kyiv no longer supplies itself directly with Russian gas. Mouchée Marine Le Pen? ” No way “, responds to” L’Obs “, Sébastien Chenu, according to whom” the discussions are much more vigorous in the hemicycle between French parliamentarians! “.
“The other groups are surprised to see us? And although they get used! We will never practice an empty chair policy.also assures the vice-president RN, according to whom the exchange which took place on Wednesday had not “vocation to blur the diplomatic message from France to Ukraine”.
Once the meal was over, a chocolate Jack Russell, an animal that had become the emblem of the Ukrainian resistance, was offered to the host of this evening. An evening which, according to its participants, says a lot about Marine Le Pen’s strategy and her desire to erase the many marks of admiration she has had in the past for the Kremlin. “She is there everywhere and all the timesighs a parliamentarian. It is clear that she is now jumping on opportunities to institutionalize herself and that she dares everything. Even come to Ukraine”.
