Compulsory military service in France to be introduced

nongaddarliberal

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If this comes true, France might have over a million people in its Armed forces soon :shock::shock:


The Independent
French president Emmanuel Macron to bring back compulsory military service for young people
President overruled defence minister who said national service might not be compulsory
  • Jon Stone Europe Correspondent
  • Wednesday 14 February 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron is the first modern French president not to do national service himself AFP/Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to plough ahead with a campaign promise to reintroduce compulsory military service to France nearly two decades after it was scrapped.

During his election campaign Mr Macron pledged to give all young people “a direct experience of military life with its know-how and demands” and said restoring national service would inspire patriotism and social cohesion.

Between 600,000 and 800,000 young people are year would face military training and spend at least a month with the armed forces – at great cost to the French state.


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The policy has caused a rift in the French cabinet after defence minister Florence Parly said last week that the policy would “probably not be obligatory” for young people.

But a spokesperson for Mr Macron overruled her on Tuesday and insisted that the service would be both “universal” and “obligatory” and that there would be no U-turn on the campaign pledge. The spokesperson left open the possibility that the service could involve “civic engagement” and said specific proposals would be outlined by a government taskforce in April.

Mr Macron is the first modern FrenchPresident not to have done military service, because he came of age after the practice was scrapped. The Government wants to trial the return of the scheme from 2019.

The centrist politician has been unclear about the exact nature of the service, suggesting in January of this year that it could involve “social, environmental, and cultural domains”.

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During the French Revolution France pioneered military conscription as a condition of citizenship. By the second half of the 20th century the amount of military service required was scaled back from the 1960s onwards, with the practice finally being phased out between 1996 and 2001.

In Britain, National Service was ended from 1957 onwards, with the last conscript leaving the army in 1963. Many countries have abandoned conscription in recent years, preferring professionalised armies. The policy can be expensive, with countries that continue with the practice racking up huge defence budgets for little perceived military advantage.

@Tactical Frog @Armand2REP @BON PLAN
 

nongaddarliberal

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We desperatly need it here in India
I agree we need compulsory national service in India. But not in the military. We can barely equip our existing number of troops as it is. Forget about equipping and training 40-50 million young men. A better idea would be to put people in disaster relief, firefighting, health services, farming help, infrastructure building, helping the police etc.
 

Razor

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Considering Macron said this will be "universal" will they also be conscripting young women? It's only fair. All I can say is if that happens, French army barracks will be quite the place to be :biggrin2:.
I don't think "universal" conscription relates to gender.
 

Armand2REP

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They want 10% of the annual defence budget to do this... never going to happen. That money would be better spent buying equipment the forces desperately need. To assimilate children to French values requires much younger training than the time they are adults.
 

SanjeevM

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We have a need for a lot of man power. Consider the below scenarios:-
1. We need to equip our population to fight and defend themselves and their neighborhood during communal clashes.

2. We also need a force of citizens to fight terrorism within India.

3. There were recent incidents wherein alert youths caught a Muslim guy red handed removing fish plates from railway track. A major accident was averted.

4.There are regular natural calamities like floods and earthquakes or accidents like building collapses for which army is called.

5. In case of a war, we need to guard our vital installations public (OFB, ISRO, DRDO, Electricity generation plants, Dams etc) as well as private including industrial complexes against sabotage from enemy within.

6. Organized intelligence gathering so that enemies plans are found and necessary action taken. For this we need presence of young people in every city with eyes and ears open.

Likewise there can be numerous occasions where we need manpower. Army is already overstretched. If we have trained men, there will be a feeling of nationalism. We can train men from all religious belief as in army so that they don't fall into religious fundamentalism.

We need large number of men for these and many more purposes. It can be achieved if we make NCC training compulsory in all schools/colleges. Even gun training can make them a line of defence and can take care of their neighborhood. Even China wouldn't think of air dropping paratroopers as they would know that every youth in India is trained to take on any enemy.
 

Tactical Frog

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This is the weirdest idea so far from President Macron. Originally he talked about a one month compulsory service, which has been dismissed by every expert as a joke . The armed forces do not even want to hear about the return of compulsory military service. What they want is highly trained, highly motivated young recruits.

Chances are we see some kind of purely civilian service emerge out of this. As hinted there

The centrist politician has been unclear about the exact nature of the service, suggesting in January of this year that it could involve “social, environmental, and cultural domains”.
 

Tactical Frog

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Flame Thrower

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This is a bad idea. Especially when there is no threat of invasion.

Population of France is close to 67 million(2016 data).

Roughly 24% or (16.5 million) of people are in 20-39 age group. The best age for a foot soldier.

People have to bear in mind that 19/20th century compulsory military training and today's military training has hell lot of difference. The difference is not only in weapons, but the kind of warfare itself.

Yes, China does have compulsory military training. I am sure that France is not looking for Chinese kind of compulsory military training.

The cost of equipping a soldier is enormous. Not to mention the training.

If this goes through, then France will spend lot more on I'll trained, less equipped and useless force that can neither handle a warlike situation nor it's regular army having best weapons to take on it's enemy.

If I am not wrong, then France leaders might be worried of Barcelona kind of terror attacks. And they want to be ready for future. I bet this compulsory military training will not affect the outcome of these kind of attacks, but it will have seizable impact (negative) on regular armed forces and France economy
 

Chimpoo

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How can you say such thing??? How can you come to such conclusion? Military service should be completely voluntary.
"France suspended peacetime military conscription in 1996, while those born before 1979 had to complete their service; since the Algerian War (1954–62), conscripts had not been deployed abroad or in war zones, except those volunteering for such deployments."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_service



Seems the French ended conscription only relatively recently. I wonder what these new measures will mean in practice.

I guess the measures ( if they go into force) might be seen as a way of tackling France's high levels of youth unemployment .

Still, I can't the French school-leavers being particularly thrilled at the idea of compulsory service.
 
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