France to restore voluntary military service, says Macron

Macron said volunteers, mostly aged 18 to 19, would be deployed ‘only on national soil’ – Copyright POOL/AFP Thomas Padilla

Francesco Fontemaggi with Mathieu Rabechault in Paris

France will introduce a voluntary military service of 10 months beginning next year, President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday, in the face of what it views as a growing threat posed by Russia.

Almost three decades after France scrapped conscription, the head of state said young adults who wished to could sign up for a 10-month military service.

“A new national service will be introduced, gradually starting next summer,” he said during a speech to troops in Varces-Allieres-et-Risset in southeastern France.

But he said volunteers, mostly aged 18 to 19, would be deployed “only on national soil”.

The announcement  comes more than three and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Macron and other French officials warning that Moscow risks not stopping at Ukraine’s borders.

“In the event of a major crisis, parliament may authorise calling upon individuals beyond just volunteers,” Macron added, and military “service would become mandatory”.

“But aside from this exceptional case, this national service is a service of volunteers then selected to meet the needs of our armed forces.”

France’s top general, armed forces chief of staff Fabien Mandon, sparked uproar at home last week by warning that France must be ready “to lose its children”, adding that Russia is “preparing for a confrontation by 2030 with our countries”.

He said it was inspired by fellow European countries.

“At a time when all our European allies are making progress in the face of a threat that affects us all, France cannot remain idle,” he said.

The new scheme would include 3,000 volunteers from the summer next year, then increase gradually so as to incorporate 10,000 young people into the army by 2030 and 50,000 by 2035, Macron said.

The large majority would be men and women aged 18 and 19, while the rest would be aged up to 25 and would have specific qualifications.

– Not ‘sending youth to Ukraine’ –

While around a dozen states have some form of conscription, the use of military service is uneven across Europe.

But France joins European countries such as Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania which have brought it back in recent years, while others such as Denmark have toughened its terms.

There is so far no suggestion that the military service in France would be compulsory, as it was before then-president Jacques Chirac abolished conscription in 1997 as part of the reform of the army.

Military service is seen as a way of bolstering armies with recruits, but also of providing a large pool of potential reservists, who could be called up in the case of a future war.

The French armed forces have approximately 200,000 active military personnel and 47,000 reservists, numbers expected to increase to 210,000 and 80,000 respectively by 2030.

Accused of warmongering by the left, General Mandon has expressed no regret over his comments last week, saying the aim was to “alert and prepare” in a “rapidly deteriorating” context.

Mandon argued on Saturday that the reactions to his comments “show that this is something that was perhaps not sufficiently perceived in our population”.

Macron and other officials have been at pains to douse the outcry caused by the general’s forthright comments and fears that French youth were heading for the front lines.

The president on Tuesday said he needed to dispel any notion that “we are going to send our young people to Ukraine”. 

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