EASTORA REPORT | France helped create NATO in 1949. Now Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to take the country out of the alliance and keep it clear of U.S. wars, a central pledge in his campaign for the 2027 presidency.
“We have no business being in NATO, nor in American wars,” the France Unbowed leader told supporters at a rally in Le Bourget, outside Paris, on Saturday, November 7. His plan starts with an immediate exit from NATO’s integrated military command, followed by a gradual withdrawal from the alliance itself.
It is a larger break than the one ordered by Charles de Gaulle in 1966. France quit NATO’s military command then but remained an ally, and returned to the command structure in 2009. Mélenchon proposes ending that membership altogether.
But leaving the U.S.-led alliance, he argued, need not mean retreating from global affairs. “France must build a global front of non-aligned countries,” he said, pointing toward a foreign policy that would seek partners outside rival military blocs.
That approach faces a test in Ukraine. Mélenchon condemned Russia’s invasion and said no peace deal should hand over Ukrainian territory without consulting the people affected. His programme calls for Russian troops to withdraw and for talks on European security involving Moscow. It does not specify whether France would continue supplying weapons to Kyiv.
On Gaza, he promised a more direct role. He said French naval vessels could escort civilian aid flotillas if necessary and pledged action against what he called genocide in Gaza and annexation in the West Bank. His party’s programme also proposes sanctions on Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement.
He also called for nuclear disarmament, beginning with the most heavily armed states. It is a vision of France rejecting Washington’s military leadership while seeking a greater diplomatic role in conflicts abroad.
Even if France quit NATO’s command, full withdrawal would be a separate step. Mélenchon’s promise is not simply to loosen American influence over French policy. It is to end France’s place in a U.S.-led alliance while remaining active in th