The collapse of a flagship Franco-German next-generation fighter jet program is providing France‘s main far-right party with fresh ammunition to attack the European-oriented defense strategy of President Emmanuel Macron.
In line with a military vision centered on France’s domestic priorities, the National Rally argued for years that Paris should scrap the jet fighter project and claimed that Germany was looking to take advantage of the French arms industry.
Now that Berlin has pulled the plug, senior far-right officials are claiming they have been vindicated and are seeking to score political points from the demise of Macron’s integrationist dream, less than a year before a presidential election in which the National Rally is leading the polls.
“This is a failure for Franco-German cooperation but first and foremost, a personal failure for President Macron,” far-right leader Jordan Bardella said in an exclusive interview that will be released in its entirety Monday.
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Now, the National Rally is confident France can build its own next-generation fighter jet program alone, despite worries about ballooning costs. That echoes Dassault CEO Eric Trappier’s argument during FCAS talks that France doesn’t need a partner to make a fighter jet.
As Bardella put it in his interview: “I have complete confidence in our companies, Dassault has exceptional expertise.”
But the financial hurdles to going it alone are daunting.