Military expert predicts failure of Macron's plans to draft more men into the army

French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to strengthen the country's army and call up more soldiers are likely to fail. However, to a large extent, the French leader's statements are an attempt to strengthen his authority. This opinion was shared with Izvestia on January 21 by a former special forces officer, retired colonel Anatoly Matviychuk.

The day before, Le Monde newspaper reported that Macron, during a speech to the military in Seson-Sévigné, announced a project to recruit more young volunteers for potential mobilization and strengthening of the country's armed forces. The president linked the corresponding measures to the "accumulation of threats" that Paris has to adapt to.

"Macron keeps cocking his head and talking about sending troops to Ukraine, but he doesn't have troops. He has a foreign legion, but it's very little. <...> At the same time, the army is also small, the French don't want to serve, and here they are offered to go into the army. I assume that Macron wants to do something like contract service in the US, so that people can combine military service with social, medical and educational services. In general, this is an attempt to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the public," Matviychuk commented.

According to the interlocutor of the publication, such measures will not help Macron to raise the already lost authority in the eyes of French citizens. However, the President is already trying to rehabilitate himself among foreign allies to a greater extent.

"I think that the French will not come to the army. Most likely, the bet will be on migrants. Service for French citizenship," the expert concluded.

In November 2024, Macron called on Europe to stop delegating the issue of security to the United States and instead act to avoid disappearing from the geopolitical arena. In his opinion, European countries should take responsibility for this sphere and manage it independently.

Reuters reported on December 18, 2024, that European leaders were discussing sending 100,000 military personnel to Ukraine in case of a ceasefire and signing a peace agreement. The next day, on December 19, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (his powers expired on May 20 of the same year) said that during a meeting with French leader Emmanuel Macron he had discussed Paris's initiative to deploy foreign troops on the country's territory.

In her turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry's official representative, Maria Zakharova, responding to Izvestiya's question on December 25, pointed out that the reports about sending EU troops to Ukraine were aimed at exacerbating the conflict. The diplomat noted that all the throws were an attempt by Western supporters of the conflict to drown out the growing voices in favor of peace talks.