The call of the new head of the army, General Fabien Madon, to the mayors and local rulers of the country, to start preparing the citizens for a possible with , where it is possible that “their children will lose their lives” has caused strong reactions in .
Maddon made the call during a speech at a meeting of French local government leaders in Paris, arguing that “you have to prepare your citizens that they may have to accept pain to protect our identity. We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic power to prevent the Moscow regime. If France is not ready to accept that it will lose its children, that it will suffer financially because the priorities will be given to defense production, then we are in danger.”
Reactions to Madon’s “belligerent” statements
As expected, Madon’s statements brought reactions from the parties. The leader of the Left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said he was “absolutely opposed” to Maddon in a post on X and argued that it was not Maddon’s job “to foresee sacrifices as a result of our diplomatic failures”.
On Melanchon’s side, against Madon, the leader of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, accused the general of “warmongering”.
Accordingly, Sébastien Seny, an MP for Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, said in an interview on Wednesday that Maddon “has no legitimacy” to make such statements and that he is concerned that it reflects the way of thinking of President Emmanuel Macron.
Maddon, who replaced General Thierry Bourcard as head of the French armed forces this year, had already made his assessment of what’s next with Russia known when, at his first parliamentary hearing last month, he argued that the French military should be ready “in three or four years” for a “shock” on the Moscow issue.
