Macron slams Polish PM after criticism of Putin talks

France President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday lashed out at Poland’s prime minister following his criticism of the French leader’s repeated talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday slammed Macron’s hours of phone calls with Putin, whom he likened to Hitler, and suggested they had achieved nothing.

“These statements are both baseless and scandalous,” Macron told TF1 on Wednesday evening when asked about the remarks which threaten to undermine EU unity during the bloc’s face-off with Moscow over Ukraine, AFP reports.

He said the Polish leader was from a “far-right party” and was “supporting” his rival Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election this month.

“I take full responsibility for having spoken to the president of Russia, in the name of France, to avoid the war and to build a new architecture for peace in Europe several years ago,” he added.

“I did it from the beginning of my term in office,” he said adding: “I was never naive, unlike others. I was never complicit, unlike others.”

Macron has sought to target Le Pen’s links to Russia, stressing repeatedly how she had taken a loan from a Russian bank which her National Rally party is still repaying.

Le Pen has been seeking to distance herself from Moscow, which she visited before the last election in 2017 to meet Putin.

She has lobbied for the EU to drop sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 and has expressed admiration for Putin in the past.

Also speaking to TF1, Le Pen called for France to withdraw its ambassador from Moscow following the killing of Ukrainian civilians in the town of Bucha allegedly by Russian troops.