It all starts from a commitment made after the wave of devastating fires which affected the south-west of France in 2022. In October of the same year, Emmanuel Macron announced a plan providing for the acquisition of four Canadairs, as well as the replacement of the 12 aircraft already in service, before 2027. From January 2023, the purchase of these first four aircraft is officially included in the orientation and programming law of the Ministry of the Interior.
However, at the beginning of July this year, the deputy of La France insoumise (LFI) Manuel Bompard accused Gabriel Attal of having reduced the civil security budget by “50 million euros”. A budget cut which, according to him and several members of his party, “led to the cancellation of the order for two additional Canadairs”. An observation shared by Senator Les Républicains (LR) Françoise Dumont in a report published on November 21, 2024: “This cancellation forced the General Directorate of Civil Security to give up the prospect of ordering two Canadairs. »
Attal’s delicate defense
If Gabriel Attal, then Prime Minister, did not directly cancel the order for two water bomber planes, he actually signed, on February 21, 2024, a decree canceling 10 billion euros of public spending in several areas. Faced with these accusations, his supporters dispute: “It’s false. It is the government of Gabriel Attal which placed an order in 2024 for two new Canadairs. A first since 2007,” we can for example read on an X account supporting the presidential candidate.
This is in reality a shared order with the European Union, for 12 new devices, as part of the RescUE project, unrelated to a purely French decision, since the budgets mobilized are mainly European. Among them, two water bombers directly benefit France even if they could be deployed to help other countries in need. On the other hand, after the megafires of 2025 in Aude, the State finally plans in the 2026 finance bill (PLF) to order two new water bomber planes “during the year”, with delivery envisaged in 2032 and 2033.
