MOSCOW (Sputnik) – France will boost its defense budget by 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) next year amid the looming terror threat, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday.
"Next year we will increase… the army budget by over 1.6 billion [euros]. This effort will be continued in 2019 and in 2020 because the world we live in is dangerous," Philippe told the BFM broadcaster.
26 May 2017, 07:53 GMT
In July, Emmanuel Macron called on ministries to cut on their spending, notably slashing the Defense Ministry’s budget by 850 million euros ($980 million), as part of the efforts to reduce budget deficit, thereby prompting the resignation of Gen. Pierre de Villiers, the French army’s chief of staff, who disagreed with the measure.
On August 9, a vehicle drove into a group of French soldiers in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, injuring six and prompting the National Assembly's New Left group to renounce the government's plans to cut the military budget.
