The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, justified this Sunday the new budget effort in defense until 2027, because to “be free you have to be feared” and for.
In the event that the French government manages to approve in the National Assembly this new item of 6,500 million euros in two years, the defense expenditure of France will have doubled in a decade, of the 32,000 of 2017, when the Macron Presidency assumed, up to 64,000 of 2027 (around).
On the eve of the French national holiday, Macron delivered his traditional speech from the Ministry of Defense specially expected, after the Chief of Staff, Thierry Burkhard, warned Friday that Russia considers France as “main adversary” in Europe.
The additional 6,500 million euros in defense until 2027 was the main announcement of Macron, who commissioned the government of François Bayrou How to accommodate that effort to rearms without resorting to new debt due to the delicate budget context of the country. “Our military independence is inseparable from financial independence,” he said. The French executive has set savings of 40,000 million euros (1.5 % of GDP) to reduce the high deficit of the country, from 5.8 % of GDP by 2024 to 4.6 % in 2026.
Macron’s idea is to dedicate an additional 3,500 euros in defense in 2026 and another 3,000 in 2027.
“Our military independence is inseparable from financial independence”
“Those of our parents enjoyed. This effort will not be in vain for the nation, and military spending is and will also be a source of wealth for our GDP, our economy and our territories,” he said.
The French president also requested “an update” of the salaries of the military, specifically for the officers here until the end of the year, and demanded “solving certain fragilities”, such as the shortage in the weapons stock.
Macron said that “all of Europe is aware of the strength of France” and explained that the new expense in defense will serve to set an example and “win credibility” before their partners, especially Europeans. “Let’s get out of old ridiculous debates. That (building weapons together with other European countries) will not remove anything from French sovereignty. It will reinforce it,” Macron insisted, who stated that Europeans face “the same threats.” “Given American uncertainty, Chinese plans and Russian threat, European strength is our best shield,” he said.
“Given American uncertainty, Chinese plans and Russian threat, European strength is our best shield”
Macron, who cited the new military cooperation agreement with the United Kingdom as an example to follow, warned that current conflicts are “multiform” and “hybrid” due to “the emergence of artificial intelligence, of drones, around the electronic war.”
“When there are no more rules, it is the law of the strongest that is imposed,” said the president, who regretted that the United States has “added a kind of uncertainty” due to its hesitative position in conflicts such as Ukraine.
“Never, since 1945 (the end of the), the freedom of our continent had been so threatened or had been so dependent on our own decisions,” he closed.
France, the only EU member with nuclear weapons, has 200,000 active military – something less than Poland – and is considered the seventh global military power, just behind the United Kingdom, but behind the United States, Russia and China.
