Pierre de Villiers – Infinite Unknown

Emmanuel Macron and Chief of the Defence Staff French Army General Pierre
de Villiers attend the Bastille Day military parade on July 14, 2017

– “I Won’t Let Myself Be F***ed”: French Armed Forces Chief Resigns After Clashing With Macron:

France’s armed forces chief resigned on Wednesday, culminating a dramatic dispute with president Emmanuel Macron over defense budget cuts, in what Reuters called “an early test of the newly elected president’s mettle and the tough presidential style he is cultivating.” Last week, General Pierre de Villiers publicly lashed out about Macron’s proposed €850 million cuts to the military’s budget, when in an outburst before a parliament committee he said he “won’t let myself be fucked like that,” adding that “I may be stupid, but I know when I am being had.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, the 60-year-old De Villers said that “in the current circumstances I see myself as no longer able to guarantee the robust defense force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country,” noting he had tried to keep the armed forces fit for an ever more difficult task within the financial constraints imposed on it, but was no longer able to sustain that. He added that Macron had accepted his resignation.