French Prez candidate Marine Le Pen vows to remove France from NATO military structure

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday, April 13, asserted that she will move France out of the NATO alliance's military command if she wins the ongoing presidential elections, Sputnik reported. However, Marine Le Pen stressed that she does not want France to leave the bloc and only wants the country to move out of its command structure. Notably, Le Pen will face French President Emmanuel Macron in the second round of elections in France slated to be held on April 24. 

Marine Le Pen further stressed that France had already experienced it in 1966 when French armed forces had been removed from NATO''s integrated military command. Furthermore, all non-French NATO troops had been ordered to leave the country. She highlighted that France reversed the decision and joined NATO's military command in 2009. Over the years, the National Rally leader has been repeatedly calling on France to exit NATO's integrated command stressing that the structure "perpetuates the anachronistic and aggressive logic of the Cold War bloc," as per the Sputnik report.

Presidential Elections in France

Earlier on April 12, Marine Le Pen described France as a nation where people's voice remains at the centre of the political process. Le Pen faces French President Emmanuel Macron in the presential elections. The second round in France is set to be held on April 24. In the first round of presidential elections, Emmanuel Macron was placed in the first spot while Marine Le Pen stood second and 10 other candidates had been eliminated. In the first round of voting on Sunday for the next French President, Marine Le Pen and two other parties together received 32% of the vote while Macron won 27.8% votes, according to AP. However, French President Macron was the top individual candidate. After the results of the first round of the presidential elections, Le Pen and Macron have been campaigning to win the elections in France.

Inputs from AP