"There is a need for security and order throughout the state. In recent years, we have significantly reduced the number of police officers, and today we have security problems everywhere because there is not enough presence [of gendarmes]," Macron said in an interview with the French broadcaster.
The president has earlier said that 238 additional gendarme brigades would be created in the country by 2027 to strengthen security and tackle crimes, with plans to deploy 2,144 gendarmes in remote areas.
French Minister of Interior and Overseas Gerald Darmanin has earlier said that 8,500 additional jobs for police officers and gendarmes would be created by 2027 to strengthen the fight against crime, adding that the number of law enforcement officers on the streets of cities would be doubled.
France's Court of Accounts said in May that a record number of police officers and gendarmes left their jobs last year. The body specified that 10,840 people left the French police, 33% more than in the previous year, and another 15,078 employees left the ranks of gendarmes, 25% more than a year earlier.
In 2022, the French Interior Ministry's budget amounted to over 21 billion euros ($22 billion), and 10,000 jobs were created for police officers and gendarmes. In 2023, the ministry's budget will be increased by 1.25 billion euros, a record-high increase.