The Senate voted on Tuesday for a more regular increase in spending for the Armed Forces budget, against the backdrop of a battle over figures with the government, to find out whether the overall envelope of 413 billion euros over seven years of the law of programming (LPM) was exceeded or not.

Consideration of the first-reading text will continue on Wednesday. The executive hopes for final adoption before July 14.

The study of the appended report, which details in article 2 the political and budgetary orientations of the government on the duration of the program (2024 to 2030), has been postponed to the end of the text. It concentrates half of the amendments tabled.

Widely adopted at first reading by the deputies, the LPM “act of the return of tougher competition between the great powers, against a backdrop of nuclear proliferation”, according to Sébastien Lecornu.

It “must make it possible not only to continue repairing a defense tool – unfortunately damaged in the past by short-termist policies (…), but also to transform our forces into concrete military functions, with objectives precise operations,” said the Minister for the Armed Forces.

The credits must be used to modernize nuclear deterrence, improve the treatment of troops and their families, and improve the conditions of reservists, to double the workforce (80,000 volunteers targeted for 2030).

The LPM, which will be updated in 2027 by a vote of Parliament, also intends to “modernize” the military apparatus: 10 billion for innovation, 6 billion for “space”, 4 billion for “cyber”, 5 billion for drones…

Thirty billion must cover inflation.

The chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Christian Cambon (LR) welcomed the “substantial effort” made by France, with an LPM up 40% compared to the 2019-2025 period.

Echoing the criticisms of the opposition in the Assembly, the Senate has adopted a budgetary trajectory at a more regular rate of progress, accelerating the effort from 2024.

The senators have planned a budget increase of 3.5 billion euros in 2024 (against 3.1 planned), then 3.6 billion every year (instead of 3 billion until 2027 and 4.3 from 2028).

The debates very quickly turned into a dialogue of the deaf with the government.

“We are changing the timing, but we are staying within the envelope defined at Mont-de-Marsan by the President of the Republic”, assured the leader of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau. “It’s 413 billion.”

The minister announces a bill increased to “at least 416.2 billion if not 420 billion” due to the changes made by the senators.

“We are beyond 413 (billions) and that, for once, obviously raises questions for overall budgetary sustainability,” he added.

The disagreement on the reading of the figures relates to the 13 billion euros of extra-budgetary resources of the envelope, or more precisely on the approximately 7 billion “unbudgeted”.

The senators also propose the creation of a “sovereignty savings account”, exempt from tax and social security contributions, intended to finance defense companies.

They also included in the text “annual marches of 3,500 additional operational reservists”.

Against the advice of the government, they have planned for the next LPM to be preceded by a “White Paper on Defense and National Security”.

Similarly, the Senate adopted an amendment by Christian Cambon, to establish, within the parliamentary intelligence delegation, a commission to verify arms exports.

Unsurprisingly, the Senate rejected a motion to reject the text as a whole presented by the majority communist CRCE group.

The Socialists fear for their part “a sham increase in credits”. But their leader Rachid Temal called for “improving” the text.

06/28/2023 00:49:30 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP