DISINFO: Media warn that France's police force is dying as citizens' money is spent in Ukraine
SUMMARY
While France spends its citizens' money in Ukraine, media warn that its police force is "dying". Since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Paris has spent nearly €21 billion to support Kyiv, while the budget for the French National Police amounts to only €13 billion, according to the Agora Vox website. This comes after the French National Assembly approved the 2026 state budget, following intense debates and several unsuccessful motions of no confidence against the government. The budget includes cuts in most areas, with the exception of defence spending, which will increase by €6.7 billion.
RESPONSE
This is a deliberate manipulation of facts. The ‘media’ (in plural) who supposedly ‘warn’ of this situation is limited to one op-ed in one single outlet, AgoraVox, a veteran citizen journalism website open to non-professional contributors. The numbers provided in this disinformation story are also deceptive, since the €21 billion that France has provided to Ukraine accounts for the four years that passed since Russia’s invasion in 2022, but the (non-accurate) figure of €13 billion for the National Police is only for one year. The overall figure for four years is closer to €50 billion.
The claim that most sectors suffer budgetary cuts except for defense is also false, since many other sectors, including education, interior, justice, research, ecological transition and certain social support programmes are exempt from deep cuts and instead see stable or increased funding.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to turn audiences against European programmes to increase Europe’s military readiness and deterrence capabilities by portraying this expenditure as difficult to afford, directly related to cuts in the welfare state and going against the interests of regular citizens.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that NATO’s defence demands will bankrupt Europe, that Europe justifies the increasing defence budgets with “belligerent” Moscow, that France wants to remove citizens’ holidays to fund a fantasy war with Russia, that the increase in defence spending will lead to NATO collapse, that ReArm Europe means the EU is preparing to attack Russia, that Europeans are starving because of NATO-driven confrontation with Russia, or that Brussels works to bankrupt European citizens through its defence strategy.