The leader of Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, interviewed by Franceinfo on the recent statements of his ally in Italy Matteo Salvini about Putin's re-election, stressed that Russia is not democratic.
"Salvini says that when a people vote they are always right, do you agree with the League leader?" was the journalist's question.
"This is the rule of democracy, he defines democracy in this way. Is Russia now a democratic regime? Evidently not,' Bardella replied, stating that there were no conditions for free elections in Russia.
"Putin is in this very self-centred incarnation of power, in what he has been calling since 2000 the vertical of power," Marine Le Pen's right-hand man remarked further, saying he was then in line with the positions taken by the French foreign ministry led by Stéphane Sejourné, among the loyalists of the president, Emmanuel Macron.
"I think the position held by French diplomacy is right. Don't necessarily congratulate Putin's election but take note of it because he is the representative of the Russian Federation and if there should be negotiations tomorrow they will obviously be with Putin," Bardella concluded.