Leaving NATO has long been a position of La France Insoumise (LFI) party, but now, it has presented a formal motion in the French National Assembly on this issue. In an interview with Berliner Zeitung published on Jan. 16, LFI Deputy Clémence Guetté explains the move as justified by the “conscious decision by the United States of America to officially return to an undisguised imperial policy.” This policy is openly justified in the new National Security Strategy of the U.S., she says.
Guetté cites a long series of concrete examples: the “illegal kidnapping of the President of Venezuela” and threats against other sovereign states, threats of annexation against Greenland, sanctions against European officials who are pushing for regulation of American digital corporations, and “predatory trade agreements” that have been forced on the European Union under pressure. In addition, Guetté continues, the last NATO summit set a target of spending 5%of gross domestic product on defense—spending that would primarily benefit the U.S. military industry at the expense of European independence.
All this shows, says Guetté, that the U.S. is “officially freeing itself from international law and collective security mechanisms” and effectively assigning the EU the status of a vassal. It is urgently necessary to take note and “no longer regard the United States as an ally.”
In this situation, it is neither desirable nor sustainable to keep France in a military alliance led by a power that openly positions itself outside international law, Guetté says. Such membership exposes France to a considerable risk of strategic alignment and could drag the country into conflicts that contradict its interests, principles, and international obligations.
