More spending, leaving NATO. Defense plans of the French far right
The views of the National Rally are important because, according to a POLITICO poll, it is currently the most popular party in France. Its two leaders – Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella – have good chances in next year's presidential elections.
During this year's parliamentary debate on France's updated military planning law, the party tabled nearly 100 amendments that provide a detailed insight into how the far right would tackle defense if its candidate became president.
In addition to anti-European demands, the amendments included a call for higher defense spending than the government proposed, suggesting that the far-right party would continue Macron's efforts to increase military spending. With one very important difference.
MPs of the National Union firmly claim that defense policy decisions should be made in Paris, not Brussels, and that the companies benefiting from increased budgets should be French, not European.
On the other hand, they have softened their anti-NATO rhetoric. This month, far-right lawmakers abstained from voting on amendments proposed by the far-left France Unyielding party that called for Paris to leave NATO's integrated command as quickly as possible.
The National Union does want to leave the alliance, but only after the end of the war in Ukraine. France left the alliance's Integrated Command in 1966 under President Charles de Gaulle and rejoined it in 2009. It currently plays a leading role in NATO, and leaving would limit France's operational integration with allied forces.
This is part of broader skepticism about delegating any defense powers beyond Paris. In the National Rally, far-right MP Laurent Jacobelli criticized the “magical European thinking” of insisting on stalled European cooperation, such as a tank or a future combat aircraft.
This is a reference to the struggling Future Combat Air System (FCAS) next-generation combat aircraft program, implemented jointly with Germany and Spain, and to the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) tank, designed together with Germany.
According to Frank Giletti, another National Rally MP, this proves that cooperation with Germany is unreliable: “There is a long list of Franco-German cooperation projects that have not come to fruition,” he says.
A French Air and Space Force Rafale fighter taking off from Cazaux Air Base 120 in southwestern France on January 29, 2026.Philippe Lopez/AFP / AFP
More money
According to the National Union, the government's updated military planning law is not ambitious enough. In one of its amendments, which was rejected by other MPs, the party called for 3% to be allocated in 2030. GDP for the defense budget, instead of the 2.5 percent planned by the government.
— The National Rally's commitment to increasing military spending is noteworthy, especially since this is not the case [niemieckiej skrajnie prawicowej] An alternative for Germany that is much more reluctant to rearm and takes a much more ambiguous position, comments Leo Peria-Peigne, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations.
This is in line with the opinion of National Rally voters, who were more likely to say that France does not spend enough on the army and defense – according to the European Pulse survey conducted by Cluster17 for POLITICO and beBartlet on March 13-21 this year.
Far-right MPs want to strengthen the air force with 20 additional Rafale fighters, the navy with three additional frigates and 10 additional Rafale aircraft on aircraft carriers. MPs from this party are also interested in strengthening land forces and increasing France's space potential.
However, the party did not specify how it would finance additional defense spending; the government is considering cutting other spending to bring the budget deficit under control.
One party representative close to Bardella said that the money will come from “reducing public spending”. The National Rally MP said potential savings include immigration policy, state agencies, the French contribution to the EU budget and health care for undocumented immigrants.
Another challenge is that most of the party's amendments have been rejected by other political parties. The party does not have a majority in parliament, so it would have to form a coalition even if its candidate wins next year's presidential elections. This could make it difficult for the far-right party to immediately abandon Macron's policies.
The next parliamentary elections are theoretically scheduled for 2029, but the future president is widely expected to announce early elections next year.
Zero Brussels
The National Rally wants European preferences for arms purchases to be replaced by preferences favoring France, including in early warning systems, long-range strike capabilities, air defense and space. Overall, far-right lawmakers have said they want to abandon many European projects.
— We want to give priority to French technologies and, failing that, European ones, said National Rally MP Julien Limongi.
Their skepticism has been reinforced by delays or failures of European projects in recent months: Paris is withdrawing from the Eurodrone program to build a European long-range reconnaissance drone, the FCAS project is in limbo, and the government has admitted that the implementation of MGCS has been delayed by a decade.
However, this can be a problem because defense procurement is often based on the principle of reciprocity. If France wants to sell weapons to European allies, it makes sense to buy equipment from them – as it is doing by acquiring GlobalEye early warning and control aircraft from the Swedish company Saab.
The far-right party also opposed any role for the European Commission in defense policycriticizing what Jacobelli called ideas “invented in the corridors of Brussels that will do nothing but waste valuable investments and accumulate delays.”
Therefore, this party is distrustful of EU programs aimed at increasing defense spending, such as the European Defense Industry Program worth EUR 1 billion 500 million (PLN 6 billion 371 million) and the Security Action for Europe program worth EUR 150 billion (PLN 637 billion). Paris is taking out 15 billion euros (PLN 63,700 million) of low-interest loans under the SAFE program to purchase weapons – partly because the high deficit limits its borrowing capacity.
— There is no such thing as European funds. There is French money that goes through Brussels and comes back to us in smaller amounts. “It's a loss of sovereignty,” Jacobelli said.
