Deterrence: Michel Rocard puts the foot in it

Former prime minister again proposes to remove the disincentives to save. And crashes in numbers!

Michel Rocard has engaged in a new assault against nuclear deterrence, on May 18 BFMTV , saying: "It's € 16 billion that serve absolutely no purpose." Nevermind the figure, which is false, since former Prime Minister confuses the total budget for defense equipment in 2012, with the share devoted to deterrence, which represents less than one fifth of that amount, about 3.5 billion. That's a lot of money, certainly, but under the state budget, it is acceptable. This is also equivalent to the contribution of theMinistry of Defence to reduce public deficits over three years from 2011 to 2013, decided in 2010. 3.5 billion euros, it is still the price at which the previous government sold licenses to operators of 4G phones in December 2011. This is also the amount of agricultural subsidies to French farmers in 2011 by Brussels.

Francois Hollande and Alain Juppé headwind

The intervention of Michel Rocard has provoked little comment, the defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian , but considered that "it does not save its life." The President Francois Hollande, who had spoken in the same direction during the presidential campaign , reiterated his view of army chief, single decision-maker in the nuclear: "To renounce the nuclear deterrence for reasons economy budget today is not the position of France . I am committed to the French to preserve nuclear deterrence because it is an element that contributes to peace. There are negotiations and discussion on the nuclear disarmament, France must play a full part and we will. " The speech on that occasion by former foreign minister Alain Juppe is consistent with the doxa: "It would be a very, very serious strategic error to lower the guard of the French defense today." He described the way the words of Michel Rocard "irresponsible". Really? Alain Juppe would it be a supporter of doublespeak, or hit by memory problems? The former host of the Hotel de Matignon first time the presidential term from Jacques Chirac is at least a few cases of resounding text co-authored with Michel Rocard, former Defense Minister Alain Richard and General aviator Bernard Norlain, published October 14, 2009 in Le Mondeunder the title For a global nuclear disarmament, one answer to the uncontrolled growth . "We presented in this text for its time it was a political event marking a clear break the consensus of the governing parties on the French deterrent. No signatory since returned to his guns, except Alain Juppe, who had once tempered his remarks a few months before taking office as defense minister, but without s' take personally Michel Rocard.

Other options under consideration

Today, the socialist government does not change position on deterrence. He believes that in terms of investment effort has been made ​​and no decision on modernization of existing equipment, is to be taken before the end of 2014. Yet would it be to initiate studies, not to decide the maintenance (or not) of the deterrents to two components. It was in 2016 or 2017 it will initiate the first renewal budgets of all components, whose mid-life overhaul of M-51 missiles, the renovation of the Rafale. However, this does not mean that the current posture will remain frozen in the coming months. In fact, there are budget constraints and the defense will participate. We discussed these points in this article by saying that the possible changes could include the presence of permanent sea a submarine ballistic missile or the budget of the laser megajoule. But no decision has been validated at this stage and these options will not be taken before the White Paper Committee, which has still not announced, does not publish its report.