He also said France would look into setting up savings funds devoted to defense spending to “mobilize private actors” — but that he didn’t see the need for France’s most popular savings account, the Livret A, to fund arms manufacturers — despite repeated calls from lawmakers to do so.
France’s seven-year military planning law, adopted by parliament in 2023, foresees €413 billion for defense over the 2024-2030 period. This year’s defense budget is €50.5 billion.
In an interview with Le Figaro published over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said that money wasn’t going to be enough to face Europe’s growing threats and with the United States disengaging from the continent’s security.
Macron said European countries need to start spending more than 3 percent of GDP on defense going forward.
The main question for France, a highly indebted country whose soaring deficit reached 6.2 percent of GDP in 2024, is where to find more money. The French budget for 2025, which passed last month after months of uncertainty, contains a mix of €53 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes.
“Our country is facing budgetary constraints, the two issues [defense spending and indebtedness] don’t cancel each other out,” Lombard said.
