PARIS — The Ukrainian government clapped back at French presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Monday after the far-left leader said a vote could settle territorial disputes.

“‘Referendums’ under occupation are a tool of annexation, not an expression of the people’s will. No civilised, democratic country would ever accept this for its own borders, so it should not be proposed to Ukrainians,” the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi posted on X. He added that Ukraine previously voted in 1991, and Russia is now looking to change borders with a war.

The backlash came after Mélenchon said at a France Unbowed political rally Saturday that, if in power, he would not back territorial concessions in the war-torn country “without asking the people affected whether they agree to be on one side of the border or the other.”

“The people of Donbas … have the right to decide whether they want to be Ukrainian or Russian,” he argued, referring to a region in eastern Ukraine that is the central territorial dispute of the war with Russia.

It’s not the first time Ukrainian top officials have spatted with France’s presidential front-runners in recent weeks: Last month, the war-torn country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also directly replied to far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s pledge to cut financial aid to Kyiv.

France’s staunch support for Ukraine could be dramatically overturned if Mélenchon or Le Pen wins next year in a high-stakes presidential election to replace Emmanuel Macron. According to polls, the two politicians could face off in the second round.

Like Le Pen, Mélenchon is often accused by political opponents of being soft on Moscow — accusations that are intensifying as the presidential campaign heats up.

After Saturday’s political rally, centrist Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot described the far-left leader as a “Kremlin spokesperson.” Mélenchon dismissed the accusations.

Muriel Domenach, a former French NATO ambassador now working on the campaign for center-left candidate Raphaël Glucksmann, also slammed France Unbowed’s recently released presidential platform that calls for leaving NATO and mentions Ukraine only briefly. France Unbowed lawmaker Bastien Lachaud replied, saying his party has always backed aid to Kyiv until a peace agreement is reached.

“We have made it clear from the outset of the conflict that, as long as these negotiations remain unresolved, aid to Ukraine must continue without reservation,” he said.

PARIS — French leftist presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants a radical overhaul of EU rules that would set him on a collision course with Brussels.

The far-left leader, who has enjoyed a recent surge in the polls ahead of the 2027 election, pitched a series of measures to fundamentally rethink the EU’s agenda in his presidential platform unveiled Friday. Mélenchon also said he would disobey current EU rules that would prevent him from implementing his platform if elected.

Proposing a “new deal” for Europe, Mélenchon wants to redraft the treaties, ditch core parts of the EU’s rulebook — including debt and deficit limits — suspend competition rules for public services such as energy, transport and telecoms, and loosen state aid laws.

“We will immediately implement our program at the national level. This will therefore require a confrontation with European institutions,” according to the manifesto from Mélenchon’s France Unbowed. “This also means disobeying rules blocking [us] whenever necessary.”

“Our logic is simple. As long as a deal on changing the treaties is not done, we negotiate with our partners and disobey […] blocking rules in parallel. If we get to an agreement, it will be put to a referendum,” the manifesto added.

The proposals, which echo Mélenchon’s earlier statements, would likely face tough opposition from France’s partners in the European Council, which is currently dominated by more conservative leaders.

The manifesto also said the European Central Bank should be “placed under democratic control and mobilized to fund the ecological and social transition.” Mélenchon triggered a flurry of criticism earlier this year when he said he would “set fire” to a large chunk of France’s public debt held by the ECB, setting off a nationwide debate on the subject.

France is among the countries hardest hit by a global surge in borrowing costs, with its fiscal situation also limiting the government’s ability to soften the impact of higher fuel and food prices, part of a larger cost-of-living crisis on the continent.

With public debt amounting to 117.5% of GDP and a public deficit above 5%, fiscal issues have become a central concern for voters. Presidential candidates are pitching radically different solutions to the problem.

Le Pen has tried to rebrand herself as a responsible steward of the economy unafraid of cuts — despite critics saying her plan is “overly optimistic” and her flagship promises are yet to be funded. Centrist candidates, such as former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, are pitching themselves as the voice of reason on economic and fiscal issues but are struggling to gain traction.