France has racked up a mountain of national debt to reach a debt-to-GDP ratio of 113 per cent last year, behind only Greece and Italy. The budget deficit was also among the highest at 5.8 per cent of GDP at the end of 2024, far higher than the EU limit of 3 per cent.
Ah, so that’s why they cut medical care for chronically ill people and legalised assisted suicide.
Neoliberalism go brrr
It’s easy to shit on neoliberalism.
Far harder to face the truth: we are already at war with Russia, while our security guarantor is pulling out.
I’m not sure what choices Macron made exactly, and he may well have protected established interests over the vulnerable.
But I do know that we, Free Europe, will have to make some hard choices and accept unpopular policy to be able to protect ourselves and our allies.
If your definition of “hard choices” involves coercing people to die and refusing them medical care you will lose the proxy war against Russia.
The reason far right pro-Russia parties are surging is because the lower classes have been left behind. They exploit the lower class anger.
If your answer to that is more austerity, more cutting welfare, you will lose.
I say this as someone who’se voluneered extensively for Ukranian causes. And is very aware of the threat neo-facist Russia poses. I have two friends who’ve died in the war.
No one has said that France or any other country should spent less on welfare. We need both.
Addition:
Defence or Welfare? Europe Can Afford Both, and Must
Framing welfare against defence is a politically damaging proposition. It is easy to see how this could be exploited by anti-EU populists and Europe’s adversaries. President Putin, undoubtedly, would welcome such a division. But the entire narrative that Europe faces a supposedly unavoidable choice between protecting its social model and bolstering its defences is not only politically unfortunate; it is empirically unfounded […]
Thank you, that’s a very useful perspective. I’ll keep it in mind.
This is on topic:
Russian defense spending eclipsed all other European countries combined in 2024 and is projected to increase further in 2025, according to a report published by UK’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in February 2025.
The IISS found that Moscow’s military expenditure spiked by over 40 percent to almost $146 billion [in 2024], equivalent to 6.7 percent GDP, and is on track to hit 7.5 percent GDP in 2025. When adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), Russia spent nearly $462 billion in 2024, effectively leapfrogging Europe’s collective spending. PPP is a tool used to remove price level differences between currencies in order to better demonstrate the purchasing strength of one over another.
IISS’ estimates are in line with Russia’s official budget numbers for 2024. According to the Kremlin’s plans released back in last fall, defence spending will account for 32% of the total 2025 budget expenditure.
So it seems France and the others will have to find a way to manage this.
Finland plans to raise its defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2032, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said.
The country is already committed to increasing defence expenditure to 3.5 percent of GDP […]
According to Orpo, the added military, interest and social costs will be covered through economic growth. The prime minister did not commit to any further austerity measures or borrowing to fund the proposed defence increases […]
Addition:
Sweden backs NATO’s 5% GDP Defense Spending, too, and so did already many other countries as you’ll find on the web.