Marine Le Pen’s National Front party in France has congratulated Vladimir Putin on winning the Russian presidential election, seeing in his large victory a sign of Russia’s “stability and democratic foundations.”
In a statement released Monday, the far-right party also praised Putin for bringing Russia back to prominence on the world stage.
Without being specific, the National Front then urged the European Union to “put an end to its absurd and counterproductive politics of blackmail, threats and sanctions” against Russia, “a vital ally in the war against terror and our common enemy, the Islamic State.”
A month before the French presidential election last year, Putin hosted Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin. He praised her, saying she represented part of a “quickly developing spectrum of European political forces.”
