PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced 6.5 billion euros in extra military spending in the next two years because of new and unprecedented threats, from Russia to terrorists to online attacks.
The French leader laid out the spending plans in a sweeping speech calling for intensified efforts to protect Europe. He said France will aim to spend 64 billion euros in annual defense spending in 2027, the last year of his second term; that would be double the 32 billion in annual spending when he became president in 2017.
″Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,’’ Macron said in the French president’s traditional speech to the military on the eve of the Bastille Day national holiday.
″To be free in this world we must be feared. To be feared we must be powerful,’’ he said.
He insisted that France can find the money to spend more on the military even as it tries to bring down massive debts. Conservative and far-right parties have supported greater defense spending, while left-wing parties accuse the government of sacrificing hard-won social welfare benefits for military spending.
Europe is in danger because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and wars in the Middle East, and because ″the United States have added a form of uncertainty,″ Macron said. He also cited online disinformation campaigns by unnamed foreign governments and propaganda operations targeting children, in ″the screen era.″
Macron also ordered France’s top military and defense officials to start a ″strategic dialogue″ with European partners about the role that France’s nuclear arsenal could play in protecting Europe. France and Britain agreed recently to cooperate on nuclear arsenal issues.
