French president announces accelerated rearmament and additional 36 billion euros by 2030.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron justified an increase in military spending by pointing to a difficult international situation.

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“The acceleration of dangers requires accelerating the defense effort. To be free, you must be feared; to be feared, you must be powerful,” Macron said in his New Year’s address to the armed forces at the Istres military base in southeastern France.

In that context, the French head of state announced an acceleration of rearmament, with an additional investment of 36 billion euros for the armed forces by 2030, including spending on space capabilities.

“Our space ambitions will be strengthened, whether civilian or military,” Macron said, noting cooperation with European partners and announcing that a summit dedicated to the issue will be held in the coming months.

Without explicitly mentioning Greenland, Macron urged the military to make efforts to be “forceful in this brutal world,” adding that “all efforts contribute to ensuring that we are prepared and equal to the dangers.”

He recalled that it was at the same Istres air base — home to the country’s nuclear arsenal and located about 60 kilometers from Marseille — where he announced in 2017 his decision to raise France’s defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2025, a target that has already been met.

The Military Programming Law, approved in 2023, allocates 413 billion euros to the armed forces between 2024 and 2030. However, “in the face of an increasingly brutal world,” Macron called for an additional 3.5 billion euros in 2026, pending approval of that year’s budget, and 3 billion euros in 2027. Under this trajectory, the defense budget will have nearly doubled over Macron’s two terms, reaching 64 billion euros annually by 2027 instead of 2030.

Macron also identified the restoration of a voluntary, paid military service as one of his priorities for 2026. The armed forces plan to enlist 3,000 personnel this year — 1,800 in the Army, 600 in the Air and Space Force, whose recruitment campaign has just begun, and 600 in the Navy — followed by 4,000 in 2027 and 10,000 in 2030, with the goal of reaching 42,500 by 2035.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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