🇫🇷Rearming Europe for the future
Macron sets the scene for a Europe at war, Von der Leyen announces Re-Arm EU, Donald Tusk announces plan to strengthen Polish army, while Marine Le Pen rails against an EU army and sharing nukes
👋Hey guys, Julien here. The French Dispatch is a reader-supported publication, and both our coverage of current affairs as well as our ability to bring you more news and information on the world around us is entirely funded by paid subscriptions and donations.
If you enjoy reading articles written by high-level experts, then make sure to support the publication by liking, subscribing, and sharing it with your friends and colleagues, and consider taking a paid subscription.
This week
🇪🇺Macron sets the scene for a Europe at war
🇪🇺Von der Leyen announces Re-Arm EU
🇵🇱Tusk announces plan to train military force
⛓Le Pen rails against EU army, sharing nukes
🇪🇺Macron sets the scene for a Europe at war
Right, ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a helluva week.
While this Weekly Dispatch will be much shorter than usual, as I’m taking some much needed time off, we have some important things to cover this week.
As you all well know, this week saw Emmanuel Macron give a harrowing speech that highlighted the existential threat that Europe faces, underlined by the brutal statement that “Our generation will no longer receive the dividends of peace.”
For the full transcript, look here:
![💬Macron's address to the French [Transcript]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1300,h_650,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdf1c2b8b-16cb-4bfb-9db6-2f1fc6c2413b_1335x751.png)
President Emmanuel Macron warned of growing global instability, citing the ongoing war in Ukraine, radically shifting U.S. foreign policies, rising trade tensions, and persistent terrorist threats. Most importantly, Macron reaffirmed France’s commitment to Ukraine, arguing that supporting Kyiv is essential for European security.
Macron stressed that Russia’s aggression extended beyond Ukraine, with election interference, cyberattacks, and military expansion posing direct threats to Europe. He rejected any peace deal that compromises Ukraine’s sovereignty or results in a fragile ceasefire.
To counter these threats, Macron called for increased European defence spending and military readiness, suggesting that European forces might be deployed post-war to ensure peace while reiterating that Europe must become less reliant on the U.S. for security.
He pledged to strengthen France’s military capabilities and ensure that the continent is better prepared to deter future aggressions, whether it be from Russia or elsewhere. He also underline the French remains commitment to NATO whilst insisting on greater European autonomy in defence.
“Russia has become a threat to France and to Europe. I deeply regret this and I am convinced that in the long term there will be peace on our continent with Russia once again at peace.”
Macron also addressed economic independence, criticising U.S. tariffs on European goods and vowing to respond if necessary. He urged Europe to reduce its dependence on external powers in technology, industry, and finance. He announced plans for further investments in military production and economic resilience, alongside his efforts to push for European-level actions that would ensure France and Europe could defend themselves both militarily and economically.
Finally, Macron positioned France as a leader in European security, highlighting its military strength and nuclear deterrence. He signalled openness to extending French nuclear protection to European allies while committing to new defence investments without raising taxes.
Calling for European unity, he urged nations to take responsibility for their security and warned against complacency in the face of growing global threats.
And the French president has continued to set the scene for European defence.
🇪🇺Von der Leyen announces Re-Arm EU
Adding to the history week we’ve been having, Tuesday 4th March saw Ursula von der Leyen launch the European Union’s ReArm Europe programme, which you can watch here.
The major pillar of this programme is the plan to borrow €150 billion to fund a major rearmament push, with a total of €800 billion planned to be mobilised over the next four years in the form of massive increases in national spending on defence.
“If member states would increase their defence spending by 1.5% of GDP on average (which is the cap established by the Commission in additional defence spending per year), this could create fiscal space of close to €650 billion over a period of four years”
- Ursula von der Leyen speaking to reporters on Tuesday
To close the gap between the €650 billion and the €800 billion planned, the EU would develop new defence instruments that would allow the EU to borrow from capital markets and loan funding to member states, in a similar way to the EU reaction to COVID-19.
This would be combined with an effort to give member states more leeway when it comes to increasing defence spending through the use of the EU’s national escape clause in the Stability and Growth pact, which was agreed upon in 2024.
In her own words (Tweets?), Von der Leyen highlighted that rearming Europe requires:
More fiscal space for national public funding for defence through the escape clause
A new instrument for loans to EU countries for defence capabilities most needed
More flexible use of EU funding towards defence investment
More private capital mobilised via the Savings and Investment Union and the European Investment Bank.
🇵🇱Tusk announces plan to train military force
Building upon this and following the Extraordinary EU Council meeting on Thursday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk gave a strong speech regarding the security of the Polish state and the future of the Polish armed forces.
Speaking on Friday, Tusk announced that the Polish government was preparing “large-scale military training for every adult male in Poland” as a result of the degrading security situation in Europe.
"By the end of the year, we want to have a model ready so that every adult male in Poland is trained for war, and so that this reserve is adequate for possible threats"
The goal? to increase the size of the Polish Army from 200,000 to around 500,000, with this potential number bringing the Polish military to about one-seventh of the total size of the Russian military alone.
To put a lot of this into perspective, if you look at the current situation to our east, Ukraine currently has an army of around 800,000 that is actively combating Russia’s 1.3-million-strong military.
If the majority of European militaries take similar decisions to Poland, this would create a powerful military force whose only problem would be supply and materiel production.
With the speech also highlighting that Donald Tusk supported the development of Polish nuclear weapons, it seems that Europe may find itself with an even stronger military force underpinning its security.
“Poland must pursue the most advanced capabilities, including nuclear and modern unconventional weapons”
However, in the short-term, Donald Tusk stated that Poland “is talking seriously” with France regarding being under the French nuclear umbrella, which was a major point of discussion at the EU Council this week.
The unfortunate reality of the world we live in now, constructed by far-right imperialists like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, is that every country in Europe needs to begin preparing for war and training their citizens to both fight and survive.
This means that Europe must be ready to fight and stand alone if it’s going to be able to continue developing our European project and to ensure peace globally.
Without a strong military that can defend itself, this is not possible, yet if we put our minds to it, if we boost our military industrial complex, and if we ensure that our citizens are ready for whatever may come, then we can continue to develop our society in a positive direction.
With Poland currently being NATO’s top spender at 4.7% of GDP, Tusk told the Polish parliament that this figure should reach 5% of GDP, with this increase being boosted by the insecurity brought forward by Donald Trump’s schizophrenic foreign policy.
And let’s be honest, we all should.
Yet, here’s Marine Le Pen
⛓Le Pen rails against EU army, sharing nukes
.jpg){kind=link}
Never ones to not try to rail against a European Union that made them rich, the French far-right have come out aggressively against all forms of EU military integration that Emmanuel Macron is attempting to support.
The party, which benefited from a €6 million loan from a Russian bank that it only just paid back, is now deep in the trenches fighting off Macron’s suggestion.
In Le Pen’s interview with Le Figaro, she accused Macron of confusing “sovereignty and subjugation, by proposing to move from submission to the United States to submission to the European Union.”
Playing on the current vagueness of the in-discussion plans for strengthened EU military forces, and even name-checking General de Gaulle, she has come out strongly against so much as sharing the French nuclear umbrella, having stated last week that “French defence must remain French defence … The French nuclear deterrent must remain a French nuclear deterrent. It must not be shared, let alone delegated”
“What they want is a European army, with a European governance of the army, however, if we had had a European army, our soldiers would be fighting in Ukraine”
This, however, is confused by the RN’s position on French and European independence, with the party having regularly and aggressively attacked the dependence of European forces on American equipment and currently arguing for the same things as the French state and EU manufacturers on the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP).
However, it should be noted that this is something that only saw a major change towards the 2022 Presidential elections, with Le Pen having realised that Frexit-laden Euroscepticism was not a popular proposition.
With the world becoming more dangerous, even the most Eurosceptic actors understand the need for Europe to vastly increase it’s ability to defend itself, and to become a geopolitical superpower that controls its own destiny.
Thank you for reading the French Dispatch! If you liked what you read, you should like this post and subscribe to the newsletter by clicking/tapping the button below:
And if you’d like to contribute a coffee or two to help fuel my coverage of the wild world of politics, feel free to click on the picture below:
