The ballot was conceived as an opportunity to “clarify” each party’s stance on supporting Ukraine, Benjamin Haddad, a spokesperson for the pro-Macron Renaissance party and chair of the French-Ukrainian friendship group, told POLITICO. With their votes, he argued, France Unbowed and the National Rally had “confirmed their alignment with the Kremlin’s positions.”

“Voting against [the agreement] means giving Vladimir Putin all the arguments and a signal that he hopes and expects … To abstain is … to betray what we hold dearest: the French sprit of resistance,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in his introductory speech.

It was the first time the French National Assembly has been called on to vote on the war in Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Uncertain support from far right

The National Rally’s presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, said her group had abstained instead of voting against the agreement to express their solidarity with Ukraine.

But she said she opposed the agreement because it reaffirmed support for Ukraine’s accession to the NATO military alliance which, she argued, would turn its war with Russia into a global conflict. She also objected to forward-looking financial pledges which she said would “hinder” parliament’s capacity to debate military spending.

“There’s always a ‘but’ to the National Rally’s support for Ukraine,” Haddad said. “When you look at their voting record … the National Rally has always opposed sanctions and military aid to Ukraine. If they had been in power, they would’ve let Russia win.”