French Presidential Candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon calls for leaving NATO

Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left French presidential candidate on Sunday called for leaving NATO, an organization which he labeled as useless on Twitter. Melenchon is not the only candidate questioning the transatlantic bloc. French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in December also expressed that he wanted to withdraw France from NATO. Furthermore, Marine Le Pen, another far-right presidential candidate, announced in February that France will leave NATO if she wins the elections. 

Three of the five leading French presidential candidates are critics of the US-led transatlantic alliance. France's reasons for wanting to leave NATO are not groundless. France has always pursued strategic autonomy. Former French president Charles de Gaulle withdrew French forces from NATO's command in 1966 at the height of the Cold War and expelled the alliance's headquarters from Paris and Fontainebleau the following year in protest of what he saw as US hegemony in Europe. French incumbent President Emmanuel Macron has also expressed disappointment toward the bloc. In an interview with the Economist in 2019, Macron said, "What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO."