Marine Le Pen Quotes
I absolutely disagree that it was an illegal annexation: a referendum was held, and residents of Crimea chose to rejoin Russia.
Le Pen, Marine. Interview on BFM TV. 3 Jan. 2017.
French Canadian separatists had begun a movement for an independent Quebec. The area that was to be an independent nation, however, included the land of several Indian tribes including the Cree. They insisted on the same right of self-determination within Quebec as the French Canadians claimed within Canada. Their opposition among others led to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord.
The manifesto was designed to stop the practice of one country annexing part of another either by conquest or by purchase from the previous dominant power. Nations would trade and sell colonies or provinces to each other without any thought whatsoever to the wishes of the populations of those territories.
It was true that the majority of the citizens of Crimea in 2014 preferred to be a part of Russia than the Ukraine. So the Russians sized the Crimea, had an election and when the vast majority of the Crimeans voted for Russian affiliation, they annexed the Crimea under the principle of self-determination. However, Russia has two of its states with Muslim majorities that prefer to affiliate with one of the majority Muslim nations in the area. But the hypocrisy of the Russians became clear when they would not allow those two states to have elections. The Russian policy seemed to be that whatever is part of Russia is non-negotiable and not subject to self-determination, but whatever borders on Russia that is not part of Russia is entitled to an expression of self-determination and independence of other affiliation if they want. The Crimea had the only warm water port in the Soviet Union; they had a deal with the Ukrainians that their navy could use the port. However, they felt that Western support for the new Ukrainian government was the first step in ousting Russia from that port.
In 1908 Austria had designs on the Balkans, whose small countries have been fought over for years.
Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen is a French politician and lawyer who has been President of the National Rally (previously the National Front) since 2011. She has been the member of the National Assembly for the 11th constituency of Pas-de-Calais since 2017.
