Deputy to the Chief of the Prime Minister's military cabinet on 1 July 2004, he was promoted to Général de brigade on 1 September 2005.

Général de Villiers was appointed on 15 February 2014 Chief of the Defence Staff succeeding Admiral Édouard Guillaud.

[13] During the ceremony, Adjudant-Chef François Monarcha, born in Poland 98 years and «4 months ago»- the senior veteran was insisting on this precision-, was part of the main parade as he was accompanied by a former Harki and a non-commissioned officer of British origin.

[13] Addressing the legionnaires, Général de Villiers declared "« Your regimental colors and flags do not have enough folds and space in them to house and contain all your titles of glory » ".

[17] Emmanuel Macron announced a promise to increase the defence budget to 2% by 2025[18] and Marine Le Pen announced in Lyon that she wishes to see the defence budget increased to 3% of GDP in order to build a new aircraft carrier, hire 50,000 new military personnel and progressively reintroduce compulsory military service, starting with a 3-month commitment.

[19] On 11 July 2017, Minister of Public Action and Accounts Gérald Darmanin announced that part of the government's plan to reduce spending, the military were going to be cut by 850 million euros in 2017.

[22] Emmanuel Macron, during a speech to the armed forces on 13 July 2017 in which he famously said "I am the boss",[23] affirmed his plan to raise the defence budget to 2% of GDP by 2025.

[24] During the speech, Macron publicly called out de Villiers numerous times, addressing the recent leak reported by Le Monde.

Following the Bastille Day parade, Villiers posted on Facebook a criticism of the Macron government's plans to reduce defence spending.