PARIS — An impassioned call from France’s new top general for mayors to prepare their constituents for possible war with Russia was met with swift condemnation from major political parties.

Speaking at an annual meeting of French mayors in Paris on Tuesday, Gen. Fabien Mandon urged local officials to prepare citizens that they may need “to accept suffering in order to protect who we are.”

“We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic strength to deter the Moscow regime,” Mandon said.

But he said that if France “is not prepared to accept losing its children, to suffer economically because priorities will be given to defense production, then we are at risk.”

Parties on both fringes of the political spectrum — together representing a significant share of voters — pushed back, underscoring France’s lack of consensus on the need to prepare for war as well as diverging assessments on how much of a threat Russia poses to the French homeland.

Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has run for president three times, expressed his “total disagreement” with Mandon in a post on X and said it is not Mandon’s job to “anticipate sacrifices that would result from our diplomatic failures.”

He was joined by Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel, who accused Mandon of “warmongering.”

Mélenchon’s France Unbowed and the Communists were the only parliamentary groups to vote against a symbolic resolution last year authorizing sending military aid to Ukraine.

Sébastien Chenu, a lawmaker from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, said Wednesday in an interview with French broadcaster LCI that Mandon had “no legitimacy” to make such remarks and said he was worried that they reflected President Emmanuel Macron’s thinking.

Mandon, who was appointed earlier this year to replace Gen. Thierry Burkhard as France’s top general, previously warned in his first parliament hearing last month that the French armed forces should be ready “in three or four years” for a “shock” with respect to Russia. 

France Unbowed and the National Rally, who, according to recent polling, could face off in the next presidential election runoff, both want France to leave NATO’s integrated command. While France Unbowed wants Paris to leave the military alliance altogether as soon as possible, the National Rally is ready to wait until Russia’s war in Ukraine is over to do so.