Emmanuel Macron mentioned yesterday, at least half a dozen times, the concept of “war economy” to urge the arms industry and the State to a long-range effort. In a speech at the Cherbourg naval base (Normandy) to congratulate the armed forces on the new year, the French president said that France urgently needs to restore its full military power to deal with threats and to help Ukraine more against Russia
Macron’s intervention took place the day after his defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, emphasized the “war economy” and announced immediate aid to Ukraine (40 Scalp cruise missiles, 78 Caesar guns, 3,000 shells in month and hundreds of A2SM guided bombs). Just as Macron was speaking in Cherbourg, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was summoning the French ambassador to express displeasure at France’s growing involvement in Ukraine.
According to the French head of state, rearmament is inexcusable as the world is. Macron boasted that the Defense budget has doubled in the ten years of his stay at the Elysée.
Praise was also directed at the military industry for speeding up the production, to the point of halving the deadlines, of such important elements of the arsenal as the Rafale fighter-bombers, the Caesar guns, the Mistral missiles or the Thales radars.
“We need faster and stronger military production capacity,” Macron stressed. In 2024 alone, the armies will receive new material worth 9,000 million euros and orders will be placed for 14,000 million. There will be items such as a new observation satellite, 250 armored Scorpion, 13 new Rafale and an attack submarine. The budget for cyber warfare will increase by 30% and there will be significant investments in aerial and naval drones, robots and artificial intelligence, and to increase the stock of ammunition. Macron recalled that already in 2022 he predicted “the growth of a war economy”.
The decision to support Ukraine more vigorously is firm. Paris is aware that it must make up for the decline in US engagement. Macron will soon travel to Kyiv to finalize the plans that his defense and foreign ministers have already outlined. The philosophy, according to Lecornu, is to stop providing Ukraine with armaments from the French stock and to design a lasting industrial strategy of production, partly on Ukrainian territory. France is proud of the aid it has already provided, numerically lower than that of partners such as Germany but more real and effective. Paris complains that other countries made promises that they did not keep – in allusion to Berlin – or that they sent defective equipment, such as Leopard tanks. Lecornu assured in an interview with France Inter that, for his part, “everything that was promised has been sent, and everything that has been sent works”.
In the Cherbourg speech, Macron emphasized the idea that “we cannot let Russia think that it can win”, although he did not say at any time that Ukraine must fully restore its territorial integrity. The French president warned of the dramatic consequences of a Russian victory, which would be “the end of European security”.
The terrorist threat was also addressed by the president, in the context of the Olympic Games, and there was a reference to the painful setbacks suffered last year in several countries in the Sahel. Macron denied that France would go away and abandon its commitment in this African region. “France is reorganizing”, he said. On Gaza, his formulations were cautious and there was no indication that France would embark on a war against Hamas. On the Red Sea crisis, he reaffirmed the autonomy of the French response, the classic line since the time of De Gaulle. Yes to solidarity with allies, but without assuming joint operational duties. That is why the country wants to rearm and show itself a robust and credible deterrent.
