France’s Macron Raises Defense Budget, Says Europe Under Threat

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(Bloomberg) — President Emmanuel Macron said France will make a “new” and “historic” effort to increase defense spending to counter an acceleration of threats to freedom in Europe and the risk of outright war in the coming years.

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In a speech Sunday, the French leader said he will double the annual defense budget from when he took office in 2017 to €64 billion ($75 billion) by 2027, instead of 2029 as previously planned. That will require an additional €3.5 billion next year and €3.2 billion more the following year. 

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He listed a wide array of threats from terrorism to electronic and drone warfare, and underlined a permanent and organized threat from Russia that he said Europe must dissuade to ensure peace. 

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“Never since 1945 has freedom been so threatened, and never has peace on our continent depended so much on the decisions we take today,” Macron said in an address to the armed forces ahead of the annual July 14 military parade in Paris. “Let’s put it simply: To be free in this world, you need to be feared, and to be feared you need to be powerful.”

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The plan, which reflects Macron’s ambition to project French power, comes as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have transformed the security outlook for Western nations, forcing many to reassess long-standing reluctance to allocate resources to armed forces. 

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Defense spending already surged last year by the most since at least the end of the Cold War, according to a report earlier this year from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Europe, including Russia, spent $693 billion on defense, 17% more than a year earlier, the institute said.

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However, France is facing greater spending constraints than most as efforts to repair public finances after the Covid pandemic and energy crisis have drifted off course, leaving the country with the widest deficit in the euro area. On Tuesday, Macron’s government is planning to announce broad cuts across most ministries in order to meet public finance targets.

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While France is navigating limited fiscal headroom, Germany has announced plans to unleash hundreds of billions of euros for defense and infrastructure investments, abolishing strict controls on government borrowing. Berlin has also called for the EU to reform its fiscal rules to allow countries to make bigger defense expenditures. 

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Macron said the extra spending he announced Sunday wouldn’t be financed by debt. Instead, he called for economic reforms to boost productivity and activity and a contribution from everyone, without giving more details.

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“This new, historical effort is proportionate, credible, and vital,” Macron said. “It’s not just what we need, but really what we need.”

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