French military heads threaten to resign over 'grave' defence cuts
France's top four military chiefs have threatened to resign if the government makes more cuts to their budget, with the defence minister warning a further drop in spending would leave it "unable to conduct new operations" abroad.
The heads of France's army, navy and air force, along with the military chief-of-staff, made the unprecedented threat at a meeting last week, according to defence sources. They warned that any more cuts – beyond those approved in a five-year defence budget in December – would torpedo France's ability to undertake operations in places like Mali and the Central African Republic that have drawn praise from many allies.
Such a joint resignation would be a first in modern French history.
Reports of the threat came as it emerged that Jean-Yves Le Drian the defence minister, had sent a letter to the prime minister this month warning that more cuts would have "very grave military consequences" and leave France's terrestrial army "under-equipped and rapidly unable to conduct new operations".
He also wrote that the forces were in a state of "near exasperation" over current belt-tightening. "Our defence cannot absorb more cuts in 2014, be it to jobs or budgets," Mr Le Drian said in a letter dated May 9 to Manuel Valls, the prime minister, according to excerpts cited by Le Figaro newspaper. These would have a negative impact on the army's training, which was "already inferior to international norms" and could lead to the bankruptcy of many small and medium-sized firms in the defence sector, the paper said. The consequences for French industry would be "disastrous," he warned, with "thousands of redundancies and the loss of competences". New intelligence projects, such as drone, satellite and spy planes would have to be scrapped.
The warnings came after Xavier Bertrand, a former centre-Right labour minister in the Nicolas Sarkozy administration, leaked finance ministry plans to shave up to two billion euros per year off the defence budget in coming years. The French government is seeking to cut public spending by 50 billion euros in three years, partly through freezing a range of welfare benefits and the pay of most public sector workers, to bring its deficit below the European Union's ceiling of three per cent of gross domestic product.
The French military has already been hit with a string of budget cuts in recent years and is in the process of a major overhaul to create a more mobile army still capable of operating in two or three different theatres at the same time. This year alone, it is shedding almost 8,000 posts. Last year, Mr Le Drian clinched a deal whereby the overall defence budget would remain largely static after military officials and MPs said drastic spending cuts would reduce France's ability to counter global security threats.
Mr Valls said earlier this year he would respect the law that allocates 190 billion euros to the French army over the 2014-2019 period, but did not rule out "adjustments". In the letter, Mr Le Drian said that 82,000 jobs would have been cut in the ten years to 2019, Le Figaro said. Reflecting the sentiment within the French military, Gen Vincent Desportes, former head of France's War School, said more cuts could lead to "the collapse of the French military system".
With the issue picking up media steam, Mr Valls stepped in on Friday to state that the defence budget for the next five years would be "totally preserved". "There is no need to worry about its application," he insisted. However, François Hollande's entourage was less categorical, saying the French president would take decisions on the issue "in the coming weeks".