PARIS — France will scale back by 7,500 a planned cut of 34,000 military personnel as the government announced plans to recruit security and surveillance staff to counter terrorist attacks, the president and prime minister said.
The measures are part of the response to the killing of 17 civilians, including Charlie Hebdo journalists, by three radical jihadist gunmen three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on RTL radio confirmed on RTL radio Jan. 22 a Radio France International RFI report that there are ex-French Army soldiers fighting in Iraq and Syria under the Islamic State flag.
Le Drian declined to confirm the reported figure of some 10 ex-Army troopers engaged with the radical fundamentalist ISIS force. The domestic intelligence services are tracking military personnel seen as potential risk, he said on RTL.
"We know, we're watching, we're acting," he said.
President François Hollande's office announced Jan. 21 the revised military job losses after a high-level Defense Council meeting, and after Prime Minister Manuel Valls set out plans to recruit 2,680 staff over three years to bolster the anti-terrorist activities of the Interior, Justice, Defense and Finance ministries.
"During the council meeting, [Hollande] decided to cut by 7,500 the staff reduction planned by the Ministry of Defense over 2015-2019 under the military budget law, of which 1,500 is in 2015," the president's office said.
An official review of the military budget law had been due in the autumn but the president has now asked it be moved that to be speeded up to the summer to take into account the new staff count.
The president's statement is "worrying" as it lacked extra funding to pay for the defense jobs, while the government boosted financing for the Interior and Justice ministries, said Member of Parliament François Cornut-Gentille, who is special reporter on defense spending for the Finance Committee of the lower-house National Assembly.
Defense officials are locked in tough talks with the Finance Ministry, and the former needed a strong sign to hold on to the military budget. "This sign did not come," Cornut-Gentille said.
The staff costs have a higher top priority in the defense budget than over equipment, so the lack of extra funding will likely hit orders to industry, a defense specialist said.
Extra funding of €736 million ($855 million) has been found for the Interior and Justice ministries, including €425 million for equipment including bullet-proof vests and weapons. The task is to track some 3,000 terrorist suspects and sympathizers on French soil, and better protect the police. The gunmen killed three police officers after that attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Some 2,680 staff will be recruited for the domestic anti-terrorist drive, with 1,400 for the Interior Ministry, 950 for Justice, 250 for Defense and 80 for Finance, of which 70 will be in the Customs Service. Most of these will be for intelligence gathering and tracking.
Of the fresh funds committed over three years, €233 million is for Interior and €181 million for the Justice Ministry.
The military budget law sets a total of €31.4 billion (US $36.3 billion) for 2015, of which €2.4 billion must be found through external funding, dubbed "exceptional receipts," rather than government funds, the defense specialist said.
Of the external funding, €300 million is due from government property sales and €2.1 billion from state-owned "project companies." Under the plan, the government orders equipment, sells it to the project companies, which then lease the kit back to the government. The private sector can also hold shares in the planned project companies.
Airbus A400M Atlas transport aircraft and Fremm multimission frigates are expected to be ordered this year under the project company, weekly Le Point reported.
Some 34,000 Defense Ministry jobs were due to be slashed under the present version of the 2014-19 military budget law, reflecting France's pledge to reduce its national deficit.
Hollande ordered 10,500 troops to be deployed around France as the administration raised the security alert to the highest level after the shootings.
Some 8,350 soldiers were on foreign deployments Jan. 12, with 3,000 on the Barkhane mission in sub-Saharan Africa, 2,000 in Central African Republic and 800 in Iraq the Defense Ministry said on its website.
France seeks to promote a secular society and plans with a plan to introduce classes in the next school year classes to emphasize the values of the French Republic, civility and politeness, and the importance of the media.
Email: ptran@defensenews.com.
