An intervention at the height of the severity of the situation. This Friday, Thierry Burkhard, the chief of staff of the armies, held an exceptional press conference on the threats weighing on the country.
A rare intervention intended to prepare the field for the speech of Emmanuel Macron which will take place on Sunday and which promises exceptional announcements. Global warming, disinformation, Russia, we take stock.
A number of conflicts and a violence that grows (and it will last)
The chief of staff draws an alarming portrait of the world situation. “Thirty years ago, the ICRC estimated that there were 30 conflicts of a sufficient level recorded. The CICR counting today is 120 conflicts, “he explains, adding that there are” steps that are crossed […] I think we should not expect visible horizon, going back. And so it is not worth making the round back to wait until it comes back as before. We must rather prepare to manage the world as it is today in front of us ”.
These conflicts, in addition to being more numerous, are increasingly violent with “addiction” to this violence, a disinhibited violence. “Is it five years ago, you have considered normal that a state derives 300 missiles on another and that it is not very serious because there are 95 % that were intercepted?” That there are terrestrial battles which are engaged and where there are several hundred civilian deaths per day? No, it’s not normal and you have to fight against it imperatively. »»
Many threats hover over the daily life of the French
Thierry Burkhard has also made a state of threats that hang over the daily life of the French. They are “often hybrid and difficult to attribute”. According to the general, these threats aim to test our determination, our reaction capacities and to weaken our national cohesion, “the center of gravity of our country”. Strong, it is “something that dissuades”. But weak, it inhibits our reaction capacity and our desire to defend itself ”.
Thus, the chief of staff of the armies recalled that the terrorist threat had not disappeared despite “the high intensity war”. It is present in particular on the national territory, “even if our internal security forces, our intelligence services have progressed a lot and are today rather capable of thwarting attacks. It may seem less visible, but there is a real threat and it is treated. »»
The threat is, according to him, linked to what is happening in the world, especially in the Near and Middle East, but also in the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa, citing arms trafficking and drug trafficking but also mineral traffic, especially in the Antilles, or the “predation of fishery resources” (fish, molluscs, algae crustaceans), France.
Global warming, source of chaos
The other threat that affects the daily life of the French lies in cybercrime that does not attack “not only the armies” but also hospitals, schools, local authorities, transport, energy or SMEs.
In addition, the space and the bottom of the seas can be targeted and affect the everyday life of French people with “interference and spy actions of our satellites by the big competitors”: “under the seas, these are cables that have been cut, while 95 % of the Internet traffic works via these cables. »»
Global warming also finds an important place in daily threats, it is “often catalyst for chaos”, explains the general, citing “cyclones, floods, fires …”: “It is something that tension the means of the state, and each of these crises is always, in the end, instrumentalized to denounce the insufficiencies of the State. »»
Disinformation, a favorite weapon of Russia
According to Thierry Burkhard, all the threats previously cited are exploited by our “competitors” to weaken the country. And the favorite means of the latter is the disinformation, intended to undermine national cohesion and to slow down decision-making capacity, “by projecting a vagueness”: “We generally always see who is behind, who benefits the crime, but it is very difficult to attribute it formally”, he explains by quoting different cases such as anti-Semitic tags perpetrated in Paris by two Moldavios or bedbugs before the Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
Here, the general aims at Russia, an important file of the press conference. “A great competitor who openly appointed France as his first opponent in Europe. She is part of all the threats I have just described and it constitutes a threat or almost all. »»
It is “a real military, conventional and nuclear power and it is something that is assumed”. “Russia is built on its strength system and it still devotes enormous efforts to it today that is difficult to imagine. It has all the attributes of a totalitarian state. It is a universe that is relatively closed. A very centralized decision -making capacity, and a conditioning of the population from the wearer, something to take into account. »»
In addition, he cites the many frictions under the seas or in the air that arrives regularly with Russian devices and their many provocations.
Find all the news here on the war in Ukraine
“The objective of Russia is the weakening of Europe and the dismantling of NATO. The war in Ukraine is part of this strategy, ”he explains. Before adding: “Russia will continue to rearm itself and it is estimated, despite the losses it undergoes, that before 2030 it will again constitute a force which will be a real threat to our borders on the eastern flank of Europe”.
However, he does not believe in a direct and terrestrial attack on France, despite his status as number 1 enemy in Europe. Due to its geographical positioning “within the European continent” and by its collective defense tools with the European Union, France is “probably the country most directly threatened”. “However, this is a bit of what the Ukrainians said before 2014, and even some before 2022”. Failing to attack France directly and heavily on the national territory, Russia has many options mentioned above and little for example targeting Africa, unstable, and where France has many interests.
France must continue to prepare
As said before, this press conference is a preparation for the announcements that will be made Sunday by Emmanuel Macron. Also, Thierry Burkhard recalled that France was not “blind to the movement which was initiated” (by Russia). As proof, he has quoted the two military programming laws since 2017. “The armies are aware of the effort that is made by the nation to support them”, still recalling “the speed at which the world is evolving and at the level of threat …”
