Thread by @aidefranceukr

“In his book, as in the European Parliament, Jordan Bardella turns away from the past Russophilia of the National Rally. But he maintains a delicate balance between the two lines that coexist on the far right.” — @JeuneGuillou

🧵

“The Russophiles of the National Rally (RN) call him the ‘Atlanticist’, which is not a kind word. (...) Pierre-Romain Thionnet is the man who has brought sincere support for Ukraine into the far-right party.”

“Since July 2024, the 30-year-old new MEP, president of the RN youth movement, has been tasked by Jordan Bardella with reorienting the party’s line on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.”

“The president of the RN himself, in his book published in November, breaks with the Muscovite reading of the region’s history, long held by Marine Le Pen and those close to her.”

“Pierre-Romain Thionnet embodies this young generation of the identity-based far right, seduced more by the Ukrainian resistance than by Putin’s imperialism.”

“The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has split the French far right, which has long advocated rapprochement with Russia out of anti-Americanism and fascination with a virile, homophobic and defensive power.”

“Since the invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, several groups of radical activists - to which Mr Thionnet does not belong - have gone to the people or to the Ukrainian fighters, embracing their struggle with this subtext : ” ⤵️

“Ukraine would be the vanguard of European civilisation - in other words ‘white’ - facing multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Russia. Mr Thionnet, for his part, says he is committed to defending Ukraine in the name of a ‘Gaullist’ approach : ” ⤵️

“General de Gaulle always claimed to be part of the Western bloc in case of crisis or intimidation by the USSR. We are in that configuration. This is not a blank cheque for NATO and the United States, but Vladimir Putin is not the victim of history.” — @PR_Thionnet

“NATO is responding to Russian hostility.” — @PR_Thionnet

“This is the antithesis of the vision defended by the RN until 2022, which saw the war as a joint responsibility of the West and Russia.” — @JeuneGuillou

“The president of the National Rally also defends the strengthening of the French military presence in Eastern Europe and denounces Russian interference in the recent presidential elections in Moldova.”

“Refraining from commenting on the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, he said that the Europeans should be able to offer Kyiv security guarantees within the framework of a bilateral agreement, and that Ukraine was now ‘anchored in Europe, and the Ukrainian identity affirmed’.”

“All these speeches bear witness to a new way of thinking within the party. For now, however, the young president and his inner circle are paying lip service. The RN continues to oppose arms supplies to Ukraine, arguing that they put France in a position of co-belligerence.”

“Through its votes in the European Parliament, the RN remains in a position of neutrality, bound by the duty of consistency with the party's past positions and always listening to its pro-Russian voices, such as that of Thierry Mariani, who remains ...” ⤵️

“... in the European Parliament and is free to spread Russian propaganda. In this new legislature, the Lepenists voted against resolutions on aid to Ukraine three times and abstained twice.”

“Each time, they consider these texts to be too incantatory and oppose them on various grounds while voting in favour of more consensual points such as continued support for Ukraine.”

“The reason for their successive rejections : the plan for Ukraine to join the European Union, a spending floor per country in favour of Ukraine, new proposals for sanctions against Russia or the delivery of long-term weapons to Kyiv, all measures to which the RN is opposed.”

“After each vote against, Pierre-Romain Thionnet makes a video justifying his party's position, aware of the symbolic significance of these votes... which Thierry Mariani, for his part, presents as proof that the RN's line has not really changed”

https://x.com/PR_Thionnet/status/1836720534312178151?t=z_r8z-1Ht0QVJMiyG5yxFA&s=19

“Was he not entrusted with the responsibility of speaking for the group in the European Parliament in October 2024 to reject the cooperation mechanism for loans to Ukraine, mobilising the interests of frozen Russian assets ?”

“‘A budgetary time bomb (...). Nothing will ever be repaid’, assured Thierry Mariani on behalf of the RN. The former right-wing MP, who will represent his camp in the Paris municipal elections, is happy to keep his freedom of speech, as he regularly ...” ⤵️

“... responds to the media in the Russian sphere of influence. On 16 November 2024, he attended the conference of the identity think tank Polémia, created in 2002 to ‘affirm the superiority of European civilisation’.”

“In this forum, he was able to describe the economic disaster that would be caused by aid to Ukraine, ‘which feeds great corruption’, and the profit that the United States would make from the current war. In July, however, Thierry Mariani was on the verge of giving up.”

“Although he was reinstated on the Lepeniste list for the European elections, he was removed from the Foreign Affairs Committee, where he relayed some of the Kremlin’s language, as did the RN’s allies in Austria, Italy and Germany (the party has since broken with the AfD).”

“It was to defend a new approach that Jordan Bardella asked to sit on this committee in July, with Mr Thionnet at his side. The Russophile position is muted and the most pro-Ukrainian of the RN European deputies is put forward.”

“Jordan Bardella wanted to take the lead on this issue and I wanted to support him because there were some things that needed to be cleared up, some misunderstandings that had lingered.” — @PR_Thionnet

“This is one of the paradoxes of Jordan Bardella’s rise to power: he did not fully seize the power entrusted to him - the leadership of the party - but rather left his mark on what is theoretically Marine Le Pen’s reserved domain and has poisoned her life for years.” — @JeuneGuillou

@PR_Thionnet “The Russia dossier is a weakness for the three-time presidential candidate, who has been accused of complacency towards Vladimir Putin, especially after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the legality of which she continues to defend.”

@PR_Thionnet “On 19 December 2024, far-right MEPs abstained on a resolution whose sole purpose was to condemn the ‘occupation’ of Crimea and the human rights situation there.”

@PR_Thionnet “‘Many compatriots feared that a victory in the presidential elections would leave us weak in the face of Putin’s expansionism’, points out Jordan Bardella in his book, seeing this as one of the causes of the clear defeat in the second round of the 2022 presidential elections.”

@PR_Thionnet “The president of the RN made a speech that his political opponents would not deny and swept aside the vision of the birth of the conflict that Marine Le Pen had defended for so long : ” ⤵️

“As early as 2014, with the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Donbass, there were signs of a Russian geopolitical agenda that had gone off the rails and of a return to imperialist policies. (...) I do not believe that Vladimir Putin was pressured by the West and NATO to invade Ukraine or that he had no choice, as some claim.” — @J_Bardella

@PR_Thionnet “There is every reason to believe that he prepared this intervention, that it is part of a wider project to negate the borders of neighbouring countries in the name of a mythical Russian world that Moscow has set itself the task of protecting and reuniting.” — @J_Bardella

@PR_Thionnet @J_Bardella “Ukraine, the Dnieper and Donbass seem far away. But it is there, on this immense flank stretching from the Arctic to the Black Sea, that Europe’s security is at stake”.

@PR_Thionnet @J_Bardella “A Russian peace would be a peace in name only : it would, in fact, be a truce (...). Crowned with such a victory, no one can rule out the possibility that [Vladimir Putin] is preparing new attacks.” — @J_Bardella

lemonde.fr/politique/arti…