“The French can reassess their presence on whichever international organizations they choose,” she said
In 2017, Le Pen, a hardline nationalist, campaigned for a so-called “Frexit,” arguing that France was suffocating under decisions made at E.U. headquarters in Brussels, and needed to break away from the 27-nation bloc. Even Le Pen’s office in the E.U. Parliament in Brussels—of which she was then an elected member—featured posters calling for Frexit, with hands breaking free from chains.
That, in the eyes of some analysts, could radically change not just the E.U., but NATO too. France is a key member of both institutions. Macron, as French president, is the current rotating member of the E.U., representing the country with Europe’s largest military force—at a time of war. Le Pen told journalists on Tuesday that she favored a “referendum revolution,” in which French citizens could organize a popular vote on many different issues. That would be a dramatic break from decades in which a powerful French president has set key policy directions for defense, the economy, security, and foreign relations.
That has become increasingly urgent on the campaign trail, as Macron has cast himself as a wartime president, regularly in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. By contrast, Le Pen’s 2017 campaign was financed in part with a loan from a Russian bank, and shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, she pulped a million campaign leaflets showing her shaking hands in Moscow with Putin.
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