On the eve of July 14, Parliament definitively adopted by a final vote in the Senate the government’s military programming project (LPM): 413 billion euros over seven years, measures to modernize the armies, but also deferrals of deliveries. Good news for the executive, who hoped for final adoption before the national holiday, and for Emmanuel Macron, who is to deliver his traditional speech to the armies on Thursday evening at the Hôtel de Brienne.
The text was adopted by 313 votes against 17. The senators of the CRCE group, with a communist majority, voted against. Most environmentalists abstained. The promulgation of the law should, on the other hand, be delayed, the LFI deputies having lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Council. “This vote should not mark the end of the debates on these military subjects”, advocated the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, evoking the need for a “national debate, perhaps even popular”.
After a long standoff with the Senate, the pace has been accelerated in the joint committee: 2.3 billion must be released more quickly, by 2027, in particular for training. “This LPM is marked by a very substantial increase in credits”, welcomed Thursday the LR rapporteur to the Senate Christian Cambon. “The LPM is part of the global movement for over-armament”, lamented the communist Pierre Laurent on the contrary.
In the Assembly, the text was adopted on Wednesday with the votes of the presidential camp, the LRs, Liot, the RN and the PS. The oppositions, especially on the left, criticize “announcement effects”, pointing out that around thirty billion will cover inflation, and that credits stem from the previous LPM, “100 billion” according to the Socialists.