French Republicans Party Supports Lifting Anti-Russian Sanctions - Lawmaker

The French Republicans party that is preparing for the upcoming elections to the EU Parliament supports lifting anti-Russian sanctions, Christian Jacob, president of The Republicans party parliamentary group in the French National Assembly, said on Wednesday at a meeting with the Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Konstantin Kosachev

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th March, 2019) The French Republicans party that is preparing for the upcoming elections to the EU Parliament supports lifting anti-Russian sanctions, Christian Jacob, president of The Republicans party parliamentary group in the French National Assembly, said on Wednesday at a meeting with the Russian Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Konstantin Kosachev.

"At the moment, we are preparing for the [European] parliamentary elections. In economic terms, we naturally support the development of [trade] exchanges, and we certainly support the lifting of sanctions against Russia," Jacob said.

According to Jacob, in addition to some common European ties The Republicans would like to maintain relations with Russia's parliamentary factions.

"We are making certain efforts, we can say that we are fighting for the voice of Russia to be heard in the European Parliament as well," the politician added.

Jacob, in particular, noted that his party recognizes Russia's decisive role in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia).

The Republicans is a center-right party in France. In 2017, due to a political scandal around former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, the party was defeated in the first round of the presidential election, and it came second in the parliamentary elections, though finished the race with a huge lagging behind the presidential party La Republique En Marche, which now fully controls the lower house of parliament.

The next elections to the European Parliament will be held in May 2019.