NEW POLL - 70% of French People Support Suspending Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE Over the War in Yemen

March 21, 2019

Opinion survey on French arms exports, conducted by YouGov for SumOfUs, for the 4th anniversary of the war in Yemen on March 26

PARIS -- An overwhelming majority of French people want France to tighten its control over military equipment exports, according to a YouGov opinion survey conducted for SumOfUs, an international NGO that acts as a corporate watchdog.

This survey, conducted for the 4th anniversary on March 26 of the military campaign of a coalition of Arab countries in Yemen, among a sample of 1004 people representative of the French population, is the second opinion survey conducted in France on arms sales. In February 2018, SumOfUs launched a petition that today brings together more than 126,000 people who are calling on President Emmanuel Macron to stop arms exports to Yemen.

The survey reveals that:

Almost 7 out of 10 French people say they have already heard about the war in Yemen.
70% of the French believe that France should suspend its arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their role in the war in Yemen.
72% of French people are in favour of tighter parliamentary control over arms sales.

Link to the polling: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.sumofus.org/images/Resultats_YouGov_pour_SumOfUs_Etude_RP_Guerre_du_Yemen_051_As_Sent_200319-converti.pdf

Link to the SumOfUs petition (in English): https://actions.sumofus.org/a/french-saudi-arms-export-yemen

Nabil Berbour, Campaign Manager at SumOfUs:

"More than 126,000 SumOfUs members are calling on President Macron to immediately stop French arms exports to the Gulf monarchies that are waging war in Yemen and directing their military arsenal against civilian populations. The results of this survey show that this is an opinion shared by an overwhelming majority of the French. On the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the Saudi Arabian war in Yemen, it is high time the government heard the message of the French and did not give in to lobbying from arms manufacturers such as Dassault and Nexter."

"We hope that this campaign will indeed question the disproportionate weight of the arms industry in France. Almost 3 out of 4 French people (72%) want tighter parliamentary control over arms sales, as is the case in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other democracies, for example. We hope that this campaign will indeed question the disproportionate weight of the arms industry in France. Almost 3 out of 4 French people (72%) want tighter parliamentary control over arms sales, as is the case in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and other democracies, for example. We hope that the members of the National Assembly's who are currently in charge of producing a parliamentary report on the control of arms exports will be able to hear this strong message and will call for an end to the non-democratic control of arms sales in France."

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