French President Emmanuel Macron did not have to announce a "turning point" like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Nevertheless, the defense budget that Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu plans to present to the National Assembly on Monday afternoon shows that the peace dividend is also history in France. With the planned increase in defense spending by 30 percent, Macron, as head of the armed forces, is taking into account the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine. The seven-year defence plan envisages total expenditure of 413 billion euros. The army is already cheering about a record budget.

Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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In the Defense Committee, the draft was adopted without dissenting votes. A majority also seems certain in the National Assembly, as the Republicans (LR) wanted to support the increase or even spend more. Some are therefore still reluctant to abstain from voting, but this would not jeopardize the majority for the minority government. Only on the left is there criticism of the total expenditure on defense.

When Macron moved into the Elysée Palace in 2017, defense spending amounted to 32 billion euros annually. This year they amount to 44 billion, and by 2030 they are expected to rise to 69 billion euros. So the defense budget will have more than doubled in the Macron era. So far, the President has always honoured the budgetary commitments to the euro. Last June, he also announced that France had entered a "war economy." The arms industry is required to produce more and, above all, faster. Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu recently said that more orders had been placed for ammunition, as well as mortar shells and anti-aircraft missiles.

No conversion to a professional army planned

In February, a parliamentary report alarmed France, according to which the ammunition reserves of French troops would be used up within a few weeks in the event of a major conflict. In the journal Internationale Politik, the Minister of Defense indirectly confirmed that there is a gap between spending, military leadership and capacity: "In France, we have the ability to board a plane with an Eco class ticket, only to be asked to settle down in business class and even go into the cockpit to take the pilot's place."

The so-called Military Programme Law 2024-2030 is intended to allow France to drive forward the transformation process. "After we have repaired our armed forces, we will transform them," Macron announced. However, a radical change such as the conversion to a professional army in 1996 is not planned. Military experts criticize that France is not concentrating more on national defense in view of the conflict in Ukraine and is investing in tanks, for example. But in Paris they point out that France is not on the front line against Russia, is a NATO ally and also a nuclear power. The land forces are therefore to be kept constant at 77,000 men. More funds, on the other hand, are earmarked for the "information war" in the cyber sphere.

An alternative to the "rearmament budget" has been presented by members of the left-wing party LFI. They demand the withdrawal from the integrated NATO command, an end to industrial partnerships with Germany and the reaffirmation of France as an independent power. The vote on the defense budget is scheduled to take place on June 6. At the military parade on the national holiday of July 14, the ambitious law is to be promulgated.