Is European €100 Billion, 6th-Gen fighter program doomed? Can FCAS survive France’s political meltdown?

According to Armida van Rij, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform, France’s political crisis is bad news for European rearmament efforts.

“As long as there is political instability, discussions on the country’s budget, including defense allocations, will continue to be held hostage. The opposition parties have no incentive to work with any new government. They believe the prolonged instability increases their chances in the 2027 presidential elections”, she pointed out.

As she explains, the spending limits for 2026 had earmarked €6.7 billion ($7.8 billion) for defense, an extra investment of €3.5 billion ($4 billion) over pre-existing allocations to help modernize the French armed forces and fund capability gaps, including ammunition stock, drones, electronic warfare capabilities, and more.