Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally (RN) party, has promised to override the decisions of French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the deployment of French troops to Ukraine if her party forms the government after the upcoming elections.
Le Pen claims that the role of the French president as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces is merely "an honorary title" and that her choice of the future prime minister, who will be Jordan Bardella, will supersede Macron's defense and foreign policies.
In particular, Le Pen views direct French intervention in the Russia-Ukraine war, which Macron has frequently raised as a possibility, as unacceptable. In a forthright interview with Le Télégramme on Thursday, Le Pen stated, "Chief of the armed forces, for the president, is an honorary title since it is the prime minister who holds the purse strings."
Bardella, who is Le Pen's protégé, is the National Rally's (NR) choice to become the prime minister if the party secures an absolute majority in the parliamentary elections starting this weekend. Le Pen has said that Bardella has "no intention of picking a fight with [Macron]," but he has set "red lines" on the issue of Ukraine, stating that "the president will not be able to send troops."
Marine Le Pen's comments provide an insight into the tensions that will likely arise from the situation of cohabitation, where a French president with diminished powers has to select a prime minister from a parliament dominated by opposition MPs.
"I think we will have an absolute majority," says Le Pen, pointing to opinion polls that put her National Rally (NR) party on up to 36% of the popular vote, compared to President Macron's coalition on just under 20%.
Discussing the workings of the French Republic, Le Pen asserts, "The constitution is pretty clear on everything." She claims that in the choice of the prime minister, "the president understands that he had little choice - Jordan Bardella draws his legitimacy directly from the French people."
Furthermore, Le Pen suggests that since Macron is not running for re-election, his situation will not be "very comfortable." She wonders, "Given his pride, will he put up with it for long?"
Last month, Macron had said the possibility of sending French soldiers to Ukraine would arise if Russian forces appeared to be on the path to victory. "I'm not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," the president stated. He added, "I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine."
These contrasting positions between the current president and the potential future prime minister indicate the clash of policies and priorities that could emerge under a cohabitation scenario.
While Marine Le Pen remains the de facto leader of the National Rally (RN) party, she wants to leave the job of prime minister to her protégé, Jordan Bardella, while focusing on replacing Emmanuel Macron as president in the 2027 election.
However, Le Pen's latest pronouncements seem to have misinterpreted the constitution of the French Fifth Republic. Article 15 of the constitution clearly states: "The President of the Republic shall be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He shall preside over the higher national defense councils and committees."
The French presidency is one of the most powerful executive positions in the world, and it also grants the incumbent full control over the country's nuclear arsenal. Furthermore, the president can bypass parliament completely to rule by presidential decree.
Therefore, despite Le Pen's claims about the prime minister's authority over defense and foreign policy, the French constitution explicitly vests these powers in the office of the president. This suggests that Le Pen's plan to override Macron's decisions as commander-in-chief may not be feasible within the constraints of the existing legal framework.
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