Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old who leads France's National Rally and is a likely pick for prime minister if Marine Le Pen prevails next year, says Paris should stop writing unconditional checks to Ukraine and start asking for a quid pro quo. He said, "We are drowning in debt. We are drowning in deficits." He also said, "Everything needs to be reviewed," praising the US for pushing Ukraine to give something in return, including mentions of access to rare earths in loan and resource guarantees.
Bardella added that a Le Pen presidency would not mean walking away from Ukraine, which has been resisting Russia's assault for more than four years. One option he raised: ensure European financial support is spent only on gear bought from the defense industries of those same European countries.
On fiscal policy, Bardella said National Rally will resist any move by the current government to lift taxes in the next budget. He also talked up a strong transatlantic relationship with the US, while taking aim at European Union rules he sees as holding Europe back.
His pitch for growth leans on energy and AI, not just slogans. With abundant nuclear power, he said, France can attract the data centers that artificial intelligence needs. "What I do not want is for France to fall behind in a way that would undermine its competitiveness in new technologies in the coming years," he said, noting France's top-tier AI researchers and arguing for conditions that help startups like Mistral and anyone looking to invest in AI.
Bardella sketched a worldview closer to Donald Trump's than Emmanuel Macron's. "Donald Trump, like many of the world's major leaders today, speaks the language of power, sovereignty and the defense of the national interest," he said.
His remarks coincided with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling Interfax that, during a Moscow stop by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Vladimir Putin instructed Kremlin forces to hold their fire on Kyiv for three days.
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Le Pen still leads first-round polling, unsettling Ukraine's supporters who fear Macron's military, economic and political backing might be jeopardized. Macron has cast himself as the coordinator of Europe's response to Moscow and a steady Western ally; Bardella is signaling a harder-nosed, transactional approach.
Le Pen once kept warmer lines to Moscow. In 2017, she held a meeting with Vladimir Putin just ahead of the presidential election that she would, for the first time, lose to Macron. The number of their meetings is not clear.
Her party financed that campaign with a loan from a Russian bank, which has since been repaid. Those ties have cooled since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
