NATO chief says alliance will remain strong whatever France's election result, placing continued support for Ukraine and opposition to Russia above democratic choice

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at the German Ambassadors’ Conference in Berlin on September 10 that the 32-member military alliance would remain “strong” regardless of the outcome of next year’s French presidential election, warning that NATO must not be “naive” about what he called the threat from Russia.

According to The Hindu, Rutte’s remarks carried a clear political implication. Polls indicate that French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is facing what has been described as her “best chance” of reaching the presidency. She has previously questioned France’s role in NATO and its support for Ukraine. In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany recently won a sweeping victory in elections in Saxony-Anhalt, shaking the country’s political landscape. The tension between the political direction of Europe’s two major powers and NATO’s course was thereby brought into sharper focus.

“France will have elections in May next year, whatever the outcome, NATO will be there, will remain united, will remain strong,” Rutte told German diplomats in Berlin. He went on to say: “I am confident that whoever wins the election, they will stay the course on the key issues of investing in defence, making sure that Ukraine does not lose this war.”

Rutte described Russia as a “long-term threat”: “It is a threat.” Against calls for a compromise with President Vladimir Putin, he stressed that NATO should not be “naive”. He said the alliance would work with “whoever is elected” to lead its 32 member states, and compared politics with competitive sport while urging governments to pursue the economic reforms he considers necessary. “Staying the course is always the best option,” he said.

Asked by reporters about the AfD’s victory in the German election, Rutte declined to comment, saying only: “That is not for me to comment on.” The former Dutch prime minister, who led the Netherlands for more than a decade, is now presenting NATO as a stabilising force above the electoral cycles of its members. But that framework also treats the alliance’s continuing militarisation and support for Ukraine as a course supposedly immune to democratic change. Whether a Le Pen presidency could truly disrupt that course, and whether French voters’ views of NATO’s role and the cost of supporting Ukraine could produce a policy shift, remain open questions.