PARIS — France’s main far-right party wants a bigger, stronger military — but on strictly French terms.
That would mark a sharp break with the policies followed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who is pushing to strengthen European defense in everything from procurement to multinational defense programs and even involving allies in the French nuclear deterrent.
The views of the National Rally matter because it is France’s most popular party, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. Its two leaders — Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella — are well-placed for next year’s presidential election that will replace Macron.
During this month’s parliamentary debate about France’s updated military planning law, the party put forward nearly 100 amendments which provide a detailed look at how the party would handle defense if its candidate becomes president.
Alongside the anti-European push, the amendments included calling for higher levels of defense spending than the government was proposing, suggesting the far-right party would continue Macron’s effort to increase military expenditures.
But National Rally MPs are adamant that defense policy decisions should be taken in Paris, not in Brussels and that the companies benefiting from increased budgets should be French and not European.
On the other hand, they have toned down their anti-NATO rhetoric. Far-right lawmakers this month abstained on amendments proposed by the far-left France Unbowed party that called for France to quit NATO’s integrated command as soon as possible.
National Rally does want to leave, but only after the war in Ukraine ends. France left the alliance’s integrated command in 1966 under President Charles de Gaulle and rejoined in 2009. It’s currently playing a leading role in the alliance and leaving would reduce France’s operational integration with allied forces.
It’s part of a broader skepticism about removing any defense powers from Paris. In the National Assembly, far-right MP Laurent Jacobelli slammed “‘magical Europeanist’ thinking that consists of persisting in bogged-down European cooperation, such as the tank or the future combat aircraft.”
That’s a reference to the troubled Future Combat Air System next generation jet fighter program with Germany and Spain, and to the Main Ground Combat System tank being designed with Germany.
According to Frank Giletti, another National Rally lawmaker, that’s proof that cooperation with Germany is unreliable: “There is a long list of Franco-German collaborations that have not come to fruition.”
More money
According to National Rally MPs, the government’s updated military planning law is not ambitious enough.
In one of their amendments, which was rejected by other lawmakers, they called for a defense budget of 3 percent of GDP in 2030, instead of the 2.5 percent foreseen by the government.
“The National Rally’s commitment to increasing military spending is notable, particularly since this is not the case with the [German far-right] AfD, which is much more reluctant to rearm and takes a much more ambiguous stance,” said Léo Péria-Peigné, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations.
That chimes with National Rally voters, who were more likely to say France isn’t spending enough on military and defense, according to the European Pulse survey conducted by Cluster17 for POLITICO and beBartlet from March 13 to March 21.
Far-right lawmakers want to strengthen the air force with 20 more Rafale fighter jets, the navy with three more frigates and 10 more carrier-based Rafales. The party’s lawmakers are also keen to make land forces stronger and boost France’s space capabilities.
The party did not, however, spell out how it would pay for the extra defense spending; the government is eyeing spending cuts to bring its budget deficit under control.
One party official close to Bardella said the money would come from “lowering public spending.” A National Rally lawmaker said potential savings include immigration policy, state agencies, the French contribution to the EU budget and healthcare for undocumented migrants.
Another challenge is that most of the party’s amendments were rejected by other political groups. It doesn’t have a majority in parliament, so it would have to cobble together a coalition even if its candidate wins next year’s presidential vote. That might make it harder for the far-right party to undertake an immediate shift from Macron’s policies.
The next parliamentary election is in theory scheduled for 2029, but the next president is widely expected to call a snap election next year.
No EU defense spending
National Rally wants European arms-buying preferences to be replaced by those that favor France, including for early-warning systems, deep strike capabilities, air defense and space. Overall, far-right lawmakers said they wanted to scrap many European projects such as the European Long-Strike Approach on deep-strike capabilities, the European Patrol Corvette program, the FCAS jet and the MGCS tank.
“We want to prioritize French technologies, and failing that, European ones,” said National Rally MP Julien Limongi.
Their skepticism has been bolstered by the delay or failure of European projects in the past months: Paris is pulling out of the Eurodrone program to build a long-range European reconnaissance drone, FCAS is in limbo and the government admitted that MGCS was delayed by a decade.
However, that could prove to be a problem as defense procurements are often a give-and-take affair. If France wants to sell weapons to European allies, it helps to purchase equipment from them — as France is doing by buying GlobalEye airborne early warning and control aircraft from Sweden’s Saab.
The far-right party also pushed back against any role for the European Commission in defense policy, criticizing what Jacobelli said were ideas “conceived in the corridors of Brussels, which will have no other effect than to squander precious investments and accumulate delays.”
That’s why the party is also leery of EU programs aimed at boosting defense spending, like the €1.5 billion European Defence Industry Programme and the €150 billion Security Action for Europe scheme. Paris is taking €15 billion in low-interest loans from SAFE to buy weapons — in part because its high deficit limits its borrowing capacity.
“There is no such thing as European funds,” said Jacobelli. “There is French money that transits through Brussels and comes back to us in lesser measure. It’s a loss of sovereignty.”
Hanne Cokelaere and Sarah Paillou contributed to this report.
France’s far right wants more defense spending — just not the European kind
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