Canadair controversy: Attal rejects Mélenchon’s accusation, but documents confirm the budgetary consequences

Paris – 16 July 2026: The dispute over the renewal of France’s fleet of firefighting aircraft has intensified between Gabriel Attal and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The former prime minister rejected the accusation that his government had prevented the purchase of two additional Canadair aircraft. Mélenchon had distorted the facts, Attal said during a television appearance on 15 July. He stressed that two new aircraft had been ordered during his term in office.

This claim corresponds to only part of the facts. The state contract for two DHC-515 amphibious firefighting aircraft was indeed concluded in August 2024, when Attal was still head of government. According to the government and the Canadian contracting partner, the aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2028. They are part of the European civil protection programme rescEU, which organises joint procurement and the mutual provision of operational resources.

The core of the dispute, however, lies in an earlier budget decision. Decree No. 2024-124 of 21 February 2024 removed €52.7 million in payment appropriations from the civil security programme. The decree does not mention the aircraft individually. However, a Senate budget report noted in November 2024 that the cut had forced the Directorate-General for Civil Security and Crisis Management to abandon plans to order two Canadair aircraft.

A parliamentary inquiry in 2025 also reached this conclusion. The Directorate-General for Civil Security confirmed to several media outlets that the savings had prevented the purchase of the two additional aircraft. Attal’s entourage, on the other hand, argues that the reduction was part of a general spending correction and did not deliberately target a single contract. Politically, this only partially mitigates the former prime minister’s responsibility: the budget decision and the abandonment of the option are demonstrably linked.

The conflict is compounded by two different procurement procedures. Attal can point to the two DHC-515s firmly ordered in 2024; Mélenchon to two additional aircraft whose funding had previously been planned but was lost after the budget cut. The original political objective, following the severe forest fires of 2022, was much broader: President Emmanuel Macron had announced the renewal of the fleet, then consisting of twelve Canadair aircraft, plus four additional aircraft.

Meanwhile, two more DHC-515s are planned in the 2026 civil security budget, provided the budget law enters into force in this form. However, they are not expected to be available until late 2032 or 2033. The debate thus highlights a structural problem: short-term budget decisions collide with extremely long production and delivery times. For operational capacity against forest fires, eight Dash aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft, as well as leased helicopters and firefighting aircraft therefore remain essential alongside the Canadair fleet.