Presidential: Valérie Pécresse wants to increase the defense budget

Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Juline Garnier 4:18 p.m., March 03, 2022

The Ukrainian crisis completely crushes the electoral campaign and imposes itself in the debate.

The various candidates for the presidential election have taken up the subject and each put forward proposals in terms of European and also French defence.

It is on these themes that Valérie Pécresse tries to make herself heard.

This Thursday morning, the candidate Les Républicains proposed to increase the budget of the armies to 65 billion euros in 2030. Beyond 2% of GDP, an additional effort in total of 108 billion euros.

"I will take the necessary decisions. Concretely, this means, in addition to the renewal of the two components of air and underwater deterrence, that we will increase the format of fighter aviation. We will confirm the construction of the aircraft carrier new generation, successor to the Charles de Gaulle. We will increase the number of first-class ships," she said during her press conference.

Reinforce "defensive and offensive cyber means"

Valérie Pécresse also mentioned that she wanted to prepare the renewal of the French combat tank fleet and the robotization of the land forces, while strengthening "the defensive and offensive cyber resources as well as the human and technical resources of our intelligence services".

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“Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the share of the defense budget exceeded 3% of GDP, and this never hindered growth, quite the contrary,” argued the candidate.

Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday evening that France "would increase investment in its defense, decided in 2017" and would pursue "its strategy of economic independence".

The current budget of the Ministry of the Armed Forces must increase again in 2022, to 40.9 billion euros.