Election campaign in France: Remain defensive in Canjuers

The army is the backbone of French foreign policy, and President Macron is campaigning for Europe’s security self-sufficiency. Soldiers train for emergencies at Western Europe’s largest military training ground.

At just after seven in the morning, the battle is already in full swing – at the largest military training area in Western Europe in Canjuers in the Var department in southern France. However, at an altitude of 900 meters, it is bitterly cold this morning. In the field there are 250 soldiers and around 50 armored vehicles on maneuvers by the French armed forces.

In France, the army did not first come into the focus of politics and the public as a result of the Ukraine war. She is largely undisputed here, a respected part of society. Armed soldiers have been a familiar sight in city centers since the terrorist attacks of 2015.

Exercising at high intensity

All the threads come together on the conning tower: Information about the positions and movements of the various units – infantry, artillery, engineers. A half-dozen men in olive drab follow what’s happening in the field via radio and telescopic sights several miles away. Only their first names and their rank are revealed – for security reasons, it is said. The battle positions are shown on a large display board. Lieutenant-Colonel Bertrand explains the process: “We’re training for high-intensity combat here, like in Mali or the Sahel zone. Here in this exercise we’re dealing with a fictitious opponent. We call him Mercury.”

Then he points to the oversized display board. 120 square kilometers of combat zone: “The enemy has tanks, artillery, aircraft. The task is to capture enemy positions in the mountains and destroy their reconnaissance.”

In the armored off-road vehicle, it then goes over unpaved slopes, right into the middle of the battle. Journalists are rarely allowed to get as close as here: heavy armored personnel carriers, cannons aimed at the opposite slope, soldiers with machine guns behind protective walls. “This is the infantry section,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Bertrand. “They were moved here on foot to get into the battle positions up there.”

days without sleep

It is shot sharply. Ammunition shells fly through the air. The moment to put on earmuffs. Every shot from one of the tank guns goes through marrow and bone.

The men and women have been in action for hours. The maneuver lasted three days – without a break. That means for them: without sleep. Endurance, effort, tension – a tough program.

Reinforcement of NATO’s eastern border

The French army is an intervention army, trained for combat and anti-terrorist operations worldwide. Most recently, 500 mountain troops were prepared here for their deployment in the eastern NATO member state of Romania. They were moved to the Black Sea port city of Constantia four days after Putin’s attack on Ukraine, on the orders of French President Emmanuel Macron. As commander-in-chief of the French armed forces, he had offered NATO support.

“We are preparing for intense warfare here,” says the commander of the training camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Jacques, “for an opposing army that is just like us – or even stronger.” So also the Russian armed forces? “Yes,” the lieutenant-colonel replies without hesitation, “why not? She’s on the same level as us. We’re preparing, but also for other armies.” A confident, unequivocal statement from a French officer.

Macron’s creed

The army is the backbone of French foreign policy. Even more: President Macron is convinced that Europe must become self-sufficient in matters of security and defense – independent of the USA. Just now.

The war in Ukraine has put the president at the center of the political debate in the current French election campaign – much to the displeasure of his numerous rivals for the presidency. As head of state, all important decisions rest with him, he represents France on the international stage, now more than ever.

Macron’s central credo since the beginning of his term in office has been: European sovereignty. That means: European armed forces, European weapons system to defend European interests. The war in Ukraine seems to prove him right.

You can also see this and another report in the daily topics – at 10.15 p.m. in the first.