PARIS, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Russia is intensifying its campaign of hybrid attacks against Europe and France, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, promising a response.
Macron told a news conference that he had ordered his government to draw up a plan to protect critical infrastructure against drone and cyber attacks.
“In recent weeks, the threat — particularly the Russian hybrid threat — facing Europeans and France has intensified,” Macron said after meeting in Paris with political party leaders to discuss international developments.
Macron said Moscow sought to intimidate Europe and break the continent’s resolve in supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia.
“The result will be the opposite,” he continued. “We are not intimidated, because we know that our security today and tomorrow is at stake in Ukraine.”
Macron cited an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport in August, which the German government concluded Moscow was behind, as evidence of the changing nature of Russian aggression.
Russia says European allegations of hybrid attacks are baseless and the result of anti-Russian hysteria.
Macron also addressed high fuel prices in France which have heaped further pressure on his government as it races to finalise a deficit-taming budget for next year as voters grow restless over the rising cost of living.
The spread between French and German 10-year government bond yields widened to 100 basis points on Friday after the government said weaker growth and higher interest costs would see the budget deficit hit 5.4% of GDP this year.
France’s high deficit has limited the government’s ability to help offset fuel costs, which Macron said were the result of a war in the Middle East that France had neither chosen nor participated in.
Macron said a meeting of G7 nations would take place in the coming weeks to step up cooperation among members and help secure supplies in the face of the current energy crisis.
(Reporting by Makini Brice and Inti Landauro; Editing by Jan Harvey, Kevin Liffey and Nia Williams)
