France recovers limited military service with 3,000 volunteers next year

A limited form of military service will be reintroduced in France in response to growing fears of a confrontation with Russia.

More than 25 years after conscription was phased out, the scheme will see young men and women volunteering to receive 10 months of paid military training.

“The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,” President Emmanuel Macron said as he announced the plan at an infantry base near Grenoble in southeastern France. “We need to mobilize, mobilize the nation to defend itself, to be prepared and to continue to be respected.”

The new “national service” will be phased in from next summer, mainly for 18- and 19-year-olds, who will receive at least €800 (£700) a month.

“In this uncertain world where might triumphs over right, war is in the present tense,” Macron said. The armed forces would benefit from motivated young French people, he added: “It is an act of trust in our youth.”

Initially, the number will be limited to 3,000 next year, but should increase to 50,000 by 2035.

France currently has about 200,000 military personnel and another 47,000 reservists. The new plan should usher in a three-tier structure, made up of professionals, reservists and volunteers.

The change puts France in line with other European countries that have launched military service programs – with varying parameters – out of fear of Russian aggression.

Belgium and the Netherlands have introduced voluntary military service and Germany is planning something similar.

Just this month, the Belgian Ministry of Defense sent letters to 17-year-olds inviting them to volunteer for around €2,000 (£1,750) a month.

Further east, Lithuania and Latvia have mandatory programs, in which cadets are chosen by lottery. Sweden, which recently joined NATO, has begun a nine- to 15-month military service with merit selection.

Some European countries, such as Finland and Greece, have never suspended military service, while the Swiss will vote on Sunday to replace mandatory service for men with mandatory civic duty for all.

Other countries, including the United Kingdom and Spain, currently have no plans to reintroduce it.

French military chiefs are broadly in favor of the new measure, which they hope will create a pool of trained personnel capable of supporting professional soldiers and replacing them in non-frontline tasks.

Many volunteers are also expected to stay and pursue full military careers.

“The new military service takes us towards the hybridization of the armed forces,” said Thomas Gassilloud, president of the defense committee of the National Assembly. “We’ve gone too far in the direction of being totally professional.”

The threat of an imminent, if ill-defined, confrontation with Russia has become part of France’s national discourse. The government has periodically warned about unnoticed incidents or attempts by Moscow to poison public opinion through social media.

Recently, the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff, General Fabien Mandon, raised the alarm to a new level when he said that French military planning was based on the assumption of a confrontation with Russia in the next three or four years.

Last week he went further, telling a meeting of mayors that what France lacked was the spirit of sacrifice, urging them to prepare public opinion for the possibility of “losing children” in war.

Immediately condemned by the far left and some of the far right, the comments were also deemed unhelpful by the government, with Macron reassuring the country last weekend that there were no plans to send young recruits to fight in Ukraine.

Polls show that a large majority of the public favors voluntary military service. An Elabe poll this week found that 73% supported the measure. Young people (between 25 and 34 years old) were the least supportive, but even in this age group there was a 60% majority.

In a random BBC opinion poll on the streets of Paris, a similar picture emerged.

“It’s a good thing,” said Louis, a 22-year-old student. “It can help make the military bigger, but it’s also a way to love your nation more.”

Eilan, another student, said: “In military service you meet people from all over. You learn new ways of seeing things… You learn to talk, trust and coexist with other people.”

“From what I read in the newspapers, our army is not that powerful, so if we have to prepare for the future, maybe it is a good idea,” said set designer Brigitte.

But Lalie, a 21-year-old shop assistant, disagrees: “I think there are more important issues. It’s a shame that the president is not really interested in young people: their mental health, their financial situation, and instead focuses on this military service.”

It was in 1996 that then-president Jacques Chirac made the decision to end military service, as part of the peace dividends after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Compulsory military training for youth had been a part of national life since the French Revolution, which created the idea of ​​the citizen-soldier.

A 1798 law establishing compulsory military service said: “Every Frenchman is a soldier and is obliged to defend the country.” And after the defeat by Prussia in 1871, the republican leader Léon Gambetta said: “When a citizen is born in France, he is born a soldier.”

The Algerian war of independence was the last conflict fought by French recruits, with more than 12,000 dead.

By the 1990s the service had been reduced to 10 months, with options for civilian work.

Since the last recruit passed out in 2001, there have been several nebulous attempts to preserve some of the spirit of military service, which its defenders said fostered a sense of cohesion and equality.

Lycée (high school) students still have to attend a Defense and Citizenship Day, where they receive lectures on rights and duties, and attend a flag-raising ceremony.

In his first term, Macron also established a Universal National Service (a four-week course in civic responsibilities and practical training) that was supposed to foster national solidarity in the wake of the terrorist attacks of the 2010s. But the plan was criticized as an expensive and underserved form of holiday camp, and was abandoned earlier this year.

Although this new plan seems to enjoy a broadly favorable reception, there are still questions about its financing: a debt crisis looms over the country and parliament cannot yet approve a budget for 2026.