This Thursday, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, defended the increase in defence spending, which will double during his ten-year term at the Élysée, citing the «intensification of the threat» and the need to «inspire fear» in a «complicated» international context. «The intensification of risks requires a more accelerated defence effort.» «To achieve freedom, it is necessary to inspire fear; and to generate that fear, one must have power,» stated Macron during his New Year’s speech directed at the Armed Forces at the military base in Istres. The President of France declared that the rearmament process would be accelerated, allocating an additional investment of €36 billion for the Armed Forces by 2030, which also encompasses the space domain. Macron emphasised that «our aspirations in the space domain, both civilian and military, will be strengthened» in collaboration with European partners, and he also mentioned the organisation of a summit focused on this issue in the coming months. Macron urged the military to strive to be «firm in this hostile world,» noting that «every effort helps to ensure we are ready and capable of facing the risks.» He recalled that it was at the same location of the Istres airbase, where the country’s nuclear arsenal is located, 60 kilometres from Marseille, that in 2017 he announced his decision to increase France’s defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2025, a target that has already been achieved.
