France is emerging from its strategic torpor. Faced with an international context marked by the return of war in Europe, tensions in the Moyen-Orient and the multiplication of hybrid threats, the voted military programming law (LPM) 2026-2030 acts a long-delayed rearmament.
After two decades of budget and capacity cuts, Paris is embarking on a catch-up race that raises as many financial as societal questions.
The payment of a strategic debt
With an envelope of an additional 36 billion €, the effort seems substantial. However, it is perceived less as an investment in the future than as the late payment of a deposit on an accumulated strategic debt.
While France rearms with a certain anxiety, partners like Allemagne, in a burst of realism, have unlocked more than 100 billion € annually for their defense.
This gap illustrates a long period of disconnection between ambitions and allocated resources, of which the departure of General Pierre de Villiers, then Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, remains a striking symbol. For having warned of the lack of resources, he was forced to resign, illustrating the difficulty of making the political power accept the reality of military needs.
A citizen "adhesion deficit"
Beyond the military aspects, the LPM introduces a significant novelty: the creation of a national security alert state. Activated by decree in the event of serious threats, this exceptional device is interpreted as a response to the internal challenges that weaken the country.
The heart of the problem is not only budgetary, it is civilizational. Investing in armored vehicles, frigates or satellites is one thing; ensuring the support of the population is another. France seems to suffer less from a financial deficit than from an "adhesion deficit" of its citizens.
The "defense spirit", the backbone of the nation, appears cracked. In a society where part of the population no longer identifies with the national narrative and where patriotism seems limited to major sporting events, the question of collective mobilization becomes central.
As the Spartan adage recalls, walls are of no use if those they protect are not determined to defend them.
Towards an indispensable moral rearmament
However, the LPM 2026-2030 marks an indispensable step. It acts the end of carelessness and places France back on a trajectory of power.
But this material effort, necessary as it may be, will remain insufficient without a moral rearmament. The real unknown remains the country's ability to find the will, cohesion and pride so that this effort is not only accounting, but national.
Bernard BERTUCCO VAN DAMME