The rearmament under way in Europe following the return of war to the continent raises a question that has rarely been studied: how can a lasting defense effort be financed in states already facing severe budgetary constraints? In France, meeting
the targets set at the June 2025 NATO summit (3.5% of GDP on military spending and 5% on security spending by 2035) implies new trade-offs between taxation, debt and other public spending. Rather than asking French citizens about their defense
spending preferences in the abstract, this brief analyzes their choices when they are subject to budgetary trade-offs. Drawing on an original survey, we examine the extent to which citizens accept an additional effort for defense when they are explicitly
confronted with its budgetary and fiscal consequences. Our findings show that willingness to finance defense depends as much on perceptions of the risk of conflict as on citizens’ attitudes toward taxation and government action.
French Citizens’ Support for Financing Defense Spending: Evidence from the 2025 Survey of the French Council of Mandatory Contributions
This study, which is based on an in-depth analysis of the survey conducted by the French Council of Mandatory Contributions (2025), examines the preferences of French men and women regarding defence spending when they are faced with the need to make trade-offs in their tax choices.
Reference IPP Policy Brief No. 127
Presentation
Key Results
- Citizens are more willing to support military spending when they perceive the international environment as dangerous and endorse the civic principle of taxation.
- Support for defense is particularly low among respondents who express a sense of tax unfairness or dissatisfaction with public spending.
- Respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics (income, age, gender, education) and political preferences do not play a decisive and robust role in support for military spending.
- A majority of respondents want the planned increase in military spending to be financed by cutting other public spending.
- Among respondents in favor of higher taxes to fund defense, wealth taxes and corporate income tax attract the most support.
- Ultimately, threat creates support for defense, but taxation and trust in the state determine how it is financed.
Method and Data
Partners
This paper was supported by the ‘Investissements d’avenir’ programme (ANR-11-IDEX-0003/Labex Ecodec/ANR11-LABX-0047), ANR-20-CE41-0013-01, and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Defence and Security (CIEDS) at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris).