Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Fabien Mandon delivered a speech that was “much more complicated than the sentence suggests,” said Emmanuel Macron this Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 in Johannesburg (South Africa). General Mandon is “completely confident”, the President of the Republic also added.
“If our country wavers because it is not prepared to accept the loss of its children, as it must be said, suffering economically because its priority is defense production, then we are at risk” said the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces on Tuesday, referring to the Russian threat in his speech at the Congress of French Mayors. This small sentence made many political figures react, especially from the opposition.
“I saw clearly what might happen, taking a sentence and taking it out of context to scare people,” said Emmanuel Macron, recalling that the only commander-in-chief of the armed forces in France is the “President of the Republic”.
“The most efficient army” in Europe, Macron said
“We have a strong army, of which we should be proud,” said the South African president. “We have a strong army. We should be proud of that. It is truly the most effective army on the European continent today,” he added, explaining that precautions are necessary to “stay safe.”
On Friday, government spokesperson Maud Bergeron had tried to reassure following Fabien Mandon’s comments. “We will be clear: our children, as we understand it, will not fight and die in Ukraine,” he explained on TF1, noting that France has a “professional army”.
“The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces was talking about all the soldiers who, and he said this before this incident, were deployed around the world and were between the ages of 18 and 27,” he explained. “We cannot ignore that a number of these soldiers died in external operations.”
