Great paradox: in France, where the State is omnipresent, it seems that the subject of external security, defense and deterrence has become the poor relation of our public finances.
Yet it is the primary raison d'être of the State to ensure the safety of its inhabitants.
Alas, the welfare state has often taken precedence over the sovereign state.
Today, public power rhymes more with social protection in the broad sense: nearly 31% of GDP is devoted to it (the OECD average is 20%), i.e. a total of 812 billion euros (of which 763 billion in benefits) in 2019 compared to 1,347 billion in public spending the same year.
The defense effort has not escaped the eviction effects caused by this immense flood of social spending.
Systematically losing out with regard to the constrained budgetary context, the expenditure devoted to the armies has been halved in thirty years.
In 2019, France devoted 1.85% of its GDP to defence, a higher figure…
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