Questioned on Public Senate on the sidelines of the Questions to the Government session, the tenant of Matignon promised to “let the debates take place” on the updating of the military programming law (LPM).
The Senate finished examining this text on Wednesday evening, before a solemn vote scheduled for June 9.
But during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the government suffered a significant setback with the deletion of a key article of the bill, the one which established the budgetary trajectory by 2030 by bringing military spending to 436 billion euros, or 36 billion additional compared to the latest programming law (2023).
Joint Joint Commission
The senatorial right indeed wanted to obtain an additional 14 billion for the armies, but it was beaten on this point in the hemicycle and responded immediately by obtaining the outright rejection of the article setting out the road map for the coming years.
“We are talking about a serious subject which is the military subject […] We need a trajectory that is sustainable. The real problem as we speak is that there is no longer any trajectory in the text,” the Prime Minister worried.
“The parliamentarians must find a solution but I will let the debates take place. I am used to being calm with what is happening in the National Assembly,” he added.
The budgetary trajectory and the envelope of 36 billion, widely supported in the National Assembly in recent days, can in fact be reestablished subsequently in the parliamentary procedure, in particular during a joint joint committee (CMP). This conciliation meeting between deputies and senators must be convened after the Senate vote.
The right in “deep disagreement”
During a press conference held at the same time, the senatorial right defended its position. The LR president of the Defense Committee Cédric Perrin assured that he wanted to “recognize a deep disagreement with the government”.
“We considered that 436 billion was not sufficient to ensure the security of France,” he added, promising “to see the negotiation through to the end” in Parliament on this government text.
If the Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherine Vautrin, simply took note of this vote by meeting the parliamentarians in the CMP, the Macronist group in the Senate gave her support by denouncing a “maneuver” by the right, which leaves the LPM “amputated of one of its elements essential.”
Régime d’exception décrié
The military programming law, which sets the main orientations and means of the French armies, is however not binding on the government, the army budget having to be voted on each year in Parliament in the finance bill.
The senators completed the examination of this text calmly on Wednesday, validating in particular the creation of an exceptional regime in the event of a “serious and current” threat, a device decried by part of the left.
They also approved the transformation of Defense and Citizenship Day (JDC) into a “Mobilization Day”, nevertheless removing the need for young people to carry out a medical examination at the same time, a measure defended by the government to allow them to have of a “photograph” of the state of health of an entire age group.
