The National Assembly voted on Tuesday, May 19, to increase military spending by 36 billion euros as part of the 2024-2030 military programming law. The text will be examined by the Senate on June 2.
In an unstable geopolitical context, notably with the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, the deputies approved an additional 36 billion euros for the 2024-2030 military programming law. For the Minister of the Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin, “This law makes it possible to respond to the acceleration of the threat”. Information relayed by our colleagues on 20 minutes.
The bill was adopted at first reading by 440 votes to 122. Just like the government camp, the RN and the PS voted in favor of this increase in the budget. The rest of the left opposed it, denouncing in particular “liberticidal” measures.
The bill, which sets the main orientations and resources of the French armies by 2030, must increase planned military spending to 436 billion euros by the end of the decade.
“intensify our rearmament effort”
During the debates, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin, defended “the need to accelerate and densify our rearmament effort”, invoking “feedback from Ukraine, the Near and Middle East, but also from the crisis linked to Covid”.
The new trajectory, which will however have to be validated each year during the debate on the state budget, would bring the annual military budget to 76.3 billion euros in 2030, or 2.5% of GDP.
This bill does not plan to modify the format of the armies (210,000 active military personnel, 225 combat aircraft, 15 first-rate frigates). On the other hand, it should make it possible to encourage investments deemed necessary, starting with munitions, with more missiles and shells, as well as drones.
Other measures present in this text
The text also provides for authorizing certain private operators, notably airports, to use devices for jamming or neutralizing drones, as well as to delegate, under certain conditions, this mission to private subcontractors.
It also makes it possible to expand the possibility for intelligence to use algorithms in order to track and exploit connection data on the web, in particular for “national defense”, against “organized crime” and drug or arms trafficking. Finally, other measures present in this text concern youth, notably the transformation of Defense and Citizenship Day (JDC) into a day of mobilization refocused on military issues.
The project will be presented on June 2 to the Senate.
published on May 20 at 10:00 am, Tristan Gorgeret, 6Médias
