France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot is on a mission. He means to explain to his country’s citizens why they can no longer feel safe in the world, and why France needs to arm itself. He has less to say about just how much this will cost.
Image/Jakub Porzycki / www.imago-images.de
On a mild spring afternoon, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot walks through the lecture hall at Sciences Po Dijon, the local branch of the country’s prestigious school for political science and governance. He is about to give a lecture on Russia, Europe, China and the United States: a 40-minute overview of the globe’s current points of political tension. Listeners have thronged to the event, with young people sitting even on the steps between the rows of seats.
In a dark suit and three-day beard, Barrot, 41, smiles at the students. The world is out of balance, he says. Old certainties are collapsing. International rules are being disregarded. It is the predators who are setting the tone in this world, not the peaceful herbivores, the foreign minister declares. «And when these predators see that some are not protecting themselves, what do they do? They attack.»
Hitting close to home
It is a strikingly unsettling speech, and Barrot leaves no doubt as to who his audience should fear most. Forty percent of Russia’s state spending, he calculates, is flowing into the military sector. Only if the French and Europeans invest heavily in their own armed forces will they be able to hold their own against a bellicose Kremlin in the future, he says.
Dijon is Barrot’s second stop on a trip across the map of France. The foreign minister recently announced in Le Figaro that he intended to use the tour to give his compatriots insight into contemporary international politics and the work of his ministry. But in reality, Barrot’s main aim is to convince the population to rearm.
Since it has become increasingly clear that the United States will step back from its traditional role as Europe’s protecting power, there has been no more important issue for France’s government than strengthening the country’s own defense capabilities. French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off a public mobilization campaign when he addressed the nation in a speech on March 5, saying: «Russia has become, at the same time as I speak to you and for the years to come, a threat to France and to Europe.»
Shortly afterward, parliamentarians allied with the president fanned out to discussion events all over the country. One of these was in Mainvilliers in the Loire Valley, where in mid-March 250 concerned citizens were allowed to express their fears of a new war. A government spokesperson announced that a survival manual for crises or the onset of war would be sent out to citizens before the summer. And last week, in a speech on public finances, France’s prime minister invoked the «agonizing new era» that is demanding sacrifices from the country.
Speaking in Dijon, Barrot avoids specific mention of what these sacrifices might be. «How can we compete with China or the U.S. if we stick to the welfare state?» one student wants to know. A short silence descends on the lecture hall. «We cannot preserve our sovereignty, our ability to determine our own destiny, and at the same time hold on to the habits we have acquired over a long period of time,» Barrot finally says, without addressing the question directly.
Ultimately, the foreign minister argues, it is not just about the need to strengthen the country’s military, but also about anchoring a «new moral awareness» in the population. «If we want justice and the rule of law to continue to prevail over raw power, we must ask ourselves what part of our comfort we are prepared to give up.»
Diplomacy, close to the people
The fact that France’s highest-ranking diplomat is even bothering to conduct a kind of civil dialogue away from the capital is unusual. French ministers aren’t exactly known for being close to the people. Rather, they have the reputation of being technocratic, aloof and elitist. In an interview, Barrot recently said that he wanted to talk with all citizens about international politics, because the world situation was «forcing its way onto the French table.»
However, contact with the so-called little people has as yet been thin on the ground. In Nantes, in the west of the country, where his tour first took him, he debated with 80 pupils at a secondary school about the prospect of war and how France could arm itself against it. In addition to his speech to the Sciences Po students, the minister’s program in Dijon included meetings with entrepreneurs, city councilors and six selected readers of a regional newspaper.
Barrot, himself a graduate of elite French universities, taught finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. and at the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Paris before Macron appointed him to be minister for digital affairs in 2022. The French-Swiss dual citizen is regarded as a smart, affable communicator. One of his predecessors, former Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, attests to his «measured, relaxed style.»
Two retirees, a Ukrainian-born woman and two young men, are among the citizens scheduled to meet with him in Dijon. They are sitting on chairs in a semicircle in the offices of Le Bien Public when the foreign minister enters. The regional newspaper has invited them to a round table discussion with Barrot after each of them sent a question to the paper that was chosen for being particularly thought-provoking.
Back against the wall
The invited citizens proffer questions about the transatlantic relationship, U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the diplomatic crisis with Algeria, and the situation in Turkey and in Haiti. Barrot politely offers information on every point. The citizens seem to be very concerned about world affairs. But no one asks about cuts in social programs, or about tax increases to finance the planned boost in military spending.
This may in fact reflect the mood in society. The French are in favor of more money flowing into the armed forces, pollsters say. The only question is whether citizens are themselves prepared to make sacrifices. The state has hardly any financial flexibility. With a mountain of debt of 3.2 trillion euros and a government deficit of almost 6%, France has its back to the wall. Macron’s plan to increase military spending from the current level of 2% of the country’s gross domestic product to at least 3.5% is therefore unlikely to be possible without social cuts.
French Finance Minister Éric Lombard recently put forward an idea that he said would help fund the new weapons programs. He suggested offering citizens a military «people’s bond» – a fund into which private individuals could pay at least 500 euros to support the domestic arms industry. Lombard added that citizens would not be able to withdraw their money for at least five years. But with France’s rearmament necessarily being a long-term activity, it would be a «lucrative investment» in any case, he said.
Barrot also supports the idea of the people’s bond, as he said in his interview with Le Figaro. It would be an opportunity to involve the French in a «national show of strength» – a financial contribution that would also serve to raise awareness of the new security situation. In Dijon, he says not a word about the idea. However, his tour of France, which he sees as a «réarmement des esprits» – a rearmament of the national spirit – has only just begun.
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