Macron to allocate expenditures on military rather than pensions
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By boosting military expenditures, France will be meeting "the expectations of a partner," namely NATO.
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French soldiers take part in a live mobility demonstration to present France's military capabilities in Versailles, near Paris, October 8, 2020. (Reuters)
A day after one million people rallied against the government over the pension reform plan, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday the proposal to allocate a huge chunk of public expenditures to boost the military in 2024-2030.
His decision comes against the backdrop of widespread mass protests over his pension reform plan which involves major cuts in the sector as well as pushing the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Huge protests all across France today against pension reform.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 19, 2023
Between 1-2 million people in the streets according to the CGT 🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/Xk6yBhRyuE
Macron's plan essentially involves an increase of 413 billion euros ($446 billion) to the army in 2024-2030, up from 295 billion euros in the previous budget.
A pretext for suggesting such radical measures is that the head of state had scheduled several reforms prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, but their coming to being now has sparked strikes of a scale unseen in the past 30 years.
Read more: France set for 'Black Thursday' nationwide strike over pension reforms
The purpose of the military boost is intended "to respond to the needs of the armed forces." It would pave the road for the change that France's military requires to deal with prospective challenges, in Macron's view.
"As war is changing, France has and will have armies ready for the perils of the century," he said."We need to do better and do it differently," Macron explained, adding that “after repairing the armed forces, we are going to transform them.”
Likewise, expenditures for military intelligence to shield against cyber attacks will be raised by 60% for the same period. As for air defense, an increase of about 50% is proposed.
By boosting military expenditures, France will be meeting "the expectations of a partner," namely NATO.
Yesterday, defense ministers of over 50 countries gathered for a NATO meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss and plan the supply of massive arms and weapons deliveries for Ukaine.
France has recently come under pressure to increase its support for Kiev despite being the world's third-biggest arms exporter.
Read more: US wants world war in Europe, The Patriots leader says
