Paris, July 16: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced €6.5 billion in additional military spending over the next two years, citing mounting threats from Russia, terrorism, and cyberattacks, and calling for a stronger European defense posture.
In a wide-ranging speech on the eve of France’s Bastille Day national holiday, Macron said annual French defense spending would rise to €64 billion by 2027, the final year of his second term — double the €32 billion allocated when he first took office in 2017.
“Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,” Macron said in his address to the armed forces. “To be free in this world we must be feared. To be feared we must be powerful.”
The president framed the increase as essential for Europe’s security, warning of instability driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine, regional conflicts in the Middle East, and foreign disinformation campaigns targeting European societies.
Macron said the global landscape had shifted, pointing to growing uncertainty in U.S. foreign policy, which he described as an additional factor weakening Europe’s traditional security guarantees.
Despite France’s ballooning public debt, Macron insisted the country can afford the increased defense outlay. “We will find the resources,” he said. While conservative and far-right parties have supported higher military budgets, left-wing parties have criticized the government for prioritizing defense over social welfare spending.
Macron also announced plans to initiate a “strategic dialogue” with European partners on the role of France’s nuclear deterrent in protecting the continent. France is the European Union’s only nuclear power and one of two NATO members in Europe with a nuclear arsenal, alongside the United Kingdom.
France and the UK have recently agreed to expand cooperation on nuclear defense issues, part of a broader push for greater European security autonomy amid ongoing geopolitical instability.
The French leader warned of propaganda and disinformation campaigns orchestrated by unnamed foreign powers, particularly those targeting children through digital platforms in what he called the “screen era”. Macron emphasized the need to respond to these hybrid threats with the same urgency as conventional military dangers, noting that cybersecurity and informational warfare would be central to France’s defense strategy.
“We must never let our guard down – on land, at sea, in the air, and online,” he said. The new funding forms part of a broader multiyear military budget law passed earlier in Macron’s term, designed to modernize the French armed forces and strengthen European defense cooperation.
