The leader of the far-right Rassemblement National’s list for the European elections, Jordan Bardella, came under fire in the first French debate he took part in with all other leaders of EU election lists on Sunday, with candidates focusing mainly on his alleged links to the Kremlin.

After having refused to participate in the last two media debates with the main list leaders, the leader of the far-right party’s list – whose party is currently leading the polls with over 30% – finally took part in Sunday’s two-hour debate.

But from the start, Bardella was put to the test as other candidates brought up Rassemblement National MEP Thierry Mariani, who is in ninth place on the party’s list but has been accused of links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad.

“Mr Mariani was a minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, and his position on Crimea is that of the former president”, said Bardella.

After Renaissance leader Valérie Hayer accused Bardella’s party of refusing to join the European Parliament in condemning the arrest and incarceration of anti-Russian activist Alexei Navalny, Bardella replied: “Who is the leading European importer of Russian gas today? It’s Emmanuel Macron’s France: you feed the Kremlin’s war machine while you give lessons”.

As for Green candidate Marie Toussaint, she bluntly accused him of being a “foreign agent”, while Socialist Raphaël Glucksmann said he did not want any “Kremlin telegraphers”.

Right-wing Les Républicains candidate François-Xavier Bellamy (LR/EPP) did not hesitate to point the finger at the links between the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan (Mr Aliev) and Bardella’s running mate Thierry Mariani.

“You belong to a political family whose President of the European Commission went to Azerbaijan to find gas: if you are consistent, leave your European political family”, Bardella retorted.

While right-wing candidates Bellamy and Marion Maréchal (Reconquête, ECR) focused most of their attacks on the presidential majority, Maréchal to Rassemblement National and its EU group Identity and Democracy (ID) being somewhat isolated in the European Parliament.

Sunday’s debate also had candidates discuss the topic of migration.

After Bardella called for the “deportation of all people who have nothing to do [in France]”, the “restriction of the Schengen area” and criticising “Europe’s impotence”, Glucksmann replied: “Your platform slogans on zero immigration are a TikTok video. It doesn’t correspond to reality”, while Hayer denounced “fantasies and the stoking of fears”.

Only the right-wing Les Républicains candidate François-Xavier Bellamy (LR/EPP) maintained that “there is far too much immigration in France”.

(Hugo Struna | Euractiv.fr)

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