The French Chief of Staff, General Fabien Mandon, expressed his fear of "open war" with Russia while justifying a ¤36 billion increase in the military budget before the Parliament. General Mandon's new warning comes five months after the alarm caused by his statements asserting that France must be ready to "lose its children" in the context of a European war.
"The persistence of a Russian threat over our continent with an open war remains my main concern in terms of preparing the Armed Forces," General Mandon explicitly warned during his intervention in the military budget debate in the National Assembly.
His words prompted an immediate reaction from the Kremlin, which dismissed the fears of an open war as "completely unfounded," in the words of spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. "Russia does not pose a threat to any country that does not intend to somehow harm the security of the Russian Federation," Peskov added in statements to the AP agency.
"We are in a dangerous period," General Mandon emphasized in his speech in Parliament. "We must not cause alarm, but simply realize that we need an investment in Defence. The new military planning law is crucial for the defense of our fellow citizens."
Citing intelligence service estimates, Fabien Mandon highlighted Russia's significant figures, which will increase from an army of 1.3 million soldiers to 1.9 million by 2030, with tanks rising from 4,000 to 7,000 in the same period, and an estimated number of warships around 240.
"We can no longer have the same level of commitment with the Americans," Mandon also acknowledged, while warning of the "uninhibited use of force" and "the terrorist threat" as the other two factors justifying French rearmament.
The new military planning law will also introduce the concept of "national security alert," justified by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu as a mechanism that would allow, if necessary, "the short-term deployment of the armed forces on national territory."