'It's a more brutal world': Macron prepares French for budget sacrifices to boost military spending
On Wednesday evening President Emmanuel Macron spoke to the nation in a sombre televised address about the current international situation involving Ukraine, the United States, Russia and European security. The French head of state said the country was facing the start of a “new era” in which “the threat from the East is returning”. In doing so he sought to prepare French public opinion for the adoption of radical budgetary choices in order to finance greater military capability. As Justine Brabant and Ilyes Ramdani report, in doing so the French president seems to have opted for cuts in other public services to pay for defence spending rather than funding it through increased government borrowing.
WhenWhen President François Mitterrand addressed the nation on television on January 16th 1991, his message was clear: the Gulf War, in which France was preparing to take part, “will demand a great deal [from] the [French] people”. And the socialist head of state urged: “You must be sure of one thing. Protecting the rule of law in the Gulf, in the Middle East, however far away they may seem on a map, is protecting our country.”
