Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Misguided Pacifism Plays into Vladimir Putin’s Hands. Interview with Philippe Marlière – 25 September 2026

From French Pastoral

Philippe Marlière argues that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s position on Ukraine, which condemns the Russian invasion while taking up arguments that justify it, is a form of “confusionism” that presents itself as left-wing pacifism and serves Vladimir Putin’s interests. The interview was originally published in French in L’Opinion.

In an interview with Politico on Thursday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon opposed supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons, arguing that this could turn France into a belligerent country. By depriving Ukrainians of the means to strike at a distance, aren’t we doing Vladimir Putin a favour?

This is just the latest justification offered by Jean-Luc Mélenchon regarding Russia’s intervention. Each time, it is framed in the name of de-escalation and finding a diplomatic way out. At the same time, he has relentlessly sought to damage Volodymyr Zelensky’s image, refusing to recognise his legitimacy. Yet we are talking about the leader of a sovereign nation exhausted by more than four years of conflict. A country defending itself against an imperialism that threatens the whole of Europe. Admittedly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not go so far as to call Zelensky a fascist and a warmonger, as some left-wing activists do, but he speaks openly and contemptuously about the Ukrainian president to belittle him. In August 2025, the leader of LFI declared: “[Zelensky] is president of nothing. His term of office ended last May.”

Mélenchon practices confusionism on a large scale while claiming to embody a left-wing foreign policy. Confusionism, as my colleague Philippe Corcuff defines it, occurs when a speaker argues from one side of the political spectrum (for example, the left), but incorporates into their reasoning ideas, values, and representations belonging to the opposite side. Thus, one can develop an anti-capitalist discourse while slipping into antisemitism by adopting the conspiracy theory of a “Jewish lobby,” which appears as the imaginary personification of abstract capitalist forces. In a confusionist framework, the two sides eventually overlap and become indistinguishable. This is what Jean-Luc Mélenchon does on Ukraine: he sketches out a doctrine of non-alignment (which has roots in the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist left), while adopting Vladimir Putin’s arguments, which tend to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Philippe Marlière is Professor of French and European Politics at University College London.

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