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| French military head de Villiers quits over cuts | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The head of the French armed forces has quit after a clash with President Emmanuel Macron over budget cuts. | The head of the French armed forces has quit after a clash with President Emmanuel Macron over budget cuts. |
| Gen Pierre de Villiers said in a statement he could no longer "guarantee the durability of the army model" that he considered necessary to ensure France's protection. | Gen Pierre de Villiers said in a statement he could no longer "guarantee the durability of the army model" that he considered necessary to ensure France's protection. |
| France's government last week revealed major cuts to bring its budget deficit below the level of an EU cap. | |
| Mr Macron had said he would not tolerate dissent from the military. | |
| "If the military chief of staff and the president are opposed on something, the military chief of staff goes," Mr Macron, who as president is the commander-in-chief of the military, told Le Journal du Dimanche. | |
| But he had also said the general had his "full trust" as long as he "knows the chain of command and how it works". | |
| Gen de Villiers had reportedly said the president should not mess with him on the matter, using a far stronger expletive. | |
| He was responding to an €850m ($975m; £752m) cut in the military spending budget for 2017. | |
| It is part of an attempt to bring the national budget deficit below the European Union cap of 3% of national income. |