DISINFO: France wants to remove citizens’ holidays to fund a fantasy war with Russia
SUMMARY
The day after French President Emmanuel Macron said that, in the year 2027 alone, he would blow roughly another €60 billion on weapons for some fantasy war with Russia that France isn’t even in, the French prime minister proposed axing some statutory holidays in an effort to balance the books. The government is now asking ordinary people to surrender rest so it can look fiscally responsible without touching bloated defence budgets or elite entitlements. It has decided that its taxpayers’ time, and ultimately, their lives are less valuable than its agenda. France isn’t under siege, but its leadership is acting like it is. That fear-based urgency is how power justifies undermining democracy in favour of the authoritarian imposition of unpopular decisions.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about warmongering and economic difficulties, aiming to stir up discontent against French and European rearmament plans in face of Russia’s threat.
This is a direct reaction to France’s announcement in July 2025 of extra military expenditure of 6.5 billion euros for the next two years. As the proposal to scrap two public holidays to improve France’s economic performance, launched almost simultaneously, has been met with criticism and protests, this disinformation story tries to exploit this situation by mixing both initiatives while framing the latter as superfluous.
The ongoing increase in defence spending across NATO countries is explained by Russia’s aggressive actions, such as the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas and the 2022 large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s threat is not a “fantasy” or “fearmongering”, as this disinformation story states, but a very real one, as proven by the dozens of sabotage operations it has carried out throughout the continent in the last years, and its attempts to destabilise multiple countries through electoral interference, cyberattacks and other hybrid actions. In mid-July 2025, both the head of France’s foreign intelligence service (DGSE) Nicolas Lerner and the Chief of Staff of the French army general Thierry Burkhard warned that Russia is currently the main threat to France.
Russia has been rearming for some years at a much faster pace than NATO. The country’s military expenditure reached over 6.7% of its GDP in 2025, over 40% more than the previous year. That is 32% of its total budget for the year. However, this disinformation story ignores all these elements, creating a grossly distorted picture that it uses to advance pro-Kremlin messaging.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU arms itself using the phantom threat of a war and Russia’s imaginary menace, that Europe justifies the increasing defence budgets with “belligerent” Moscow, that ‘Russia’s threat’ is an attempt to justify increasing military expenditure in Europe, that ReArm Europe means the EU is preparing to attack Russia, or that the EU is not capable of peace, it is only interested in waging war.