Hawkish Macron refuses to back down on possibility of Western troops in Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron doubled down on refusing to rule out sending troops to Ukraine during a 30-minute, prime-time television interview on Thursday in which he once again presented the war in Ukraine as an existential threat.

“If Russia were to win, the lives of French people would change," Macron said. "We would no longer have security in Europe."

The interview, aimed at shifting French public opinion in favor of his strategy of strategic ambiguity, began with reporters from French broadcasters TF1 and France 2 asking Macron to clarify his statements from February in which he refused to rule out sending Western ground troops to Ukraine. The comments caused an uproar both at home and abroad, and prompted France’s top NATO partners, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, to clarify that they would not be sending troops.

Macron responded by arguing that setting any limits on how to respond to Moscow’s actions meant “opting for defeat." The French president spent much of the interview arguing in favor of remaining ambiguous, saying only that France would not “lead the offensive or take initiative."

“I’m right about not being specific,” Macron said.

Macron was also asked about his current relation to Putin — to whom he has not spoken in months, he said — and insisted that the war should not be treated as a personal issue.

“This isn't a novel or a soap opera. As we speak, men and women are dying in Ukraine under President Putin's watch,” Macron said.

Earlier this week, French lawmakers in both houses voted in favor of a security agreement which reaffirmed France's support for Ukraine's NATO bid and pledged financial and military support to Kyiv.

But French public opinion does not appear to support Macron. In an Odoxa poll, 68 percent of French respondents said Macron's comments on Western troops in Ukraine were "wrong."

Erwan Lestrohan, the polling institute’s consulting director, told POLITICO that “a majority of the population" is concerned about turning a powerful country like Russia into an adversary.

The French president’s increasingly hawkish tone has also heightened tensions between Paris and Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz has taken a much more subdued tone in discussing the war.

The two leaders will meet on Friday in Berlin alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a “Weimar Triangle” format meeting in an attempt to display unity.