- Macron expressed his desire to return to compulsory military service in the election campaign and in 2019 launched it under the name of "Universal National Service" (SNU). Shortly thereafter, the proposal was endorsed: Salvini in Italy, Mayk in the United Kingdom, much of the German press and the king of Morocco. However, since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, many countries are behaving as if they were preparing for a mass war. Some hypotheses suggest that all young Europeans born around 2012 will be sent to military service or war.
Following the rise of militarism in the Communia blog and following the movements of recent months, they have put on the table the imposition of compulsory military service.
It remains to be seen whether they are going to impose compulsory military service on the next generations of the European Union, but in the context of the war in Ukraine the increase in militarism is remarkable and it is worth looking at the issue.
For all men and women over the age of 16, instead of focusing on military training, it would be about making an "educational patriotic," rather than a military learning. These are the ideas that have taken hold of Macron's proposal when it comes to proposing this "new military service".
Over the years, this "new military service", which in the French State has been called "Universal National Service" and is in the test phase, has only entered into force in the Hexágono.En 2019, 2,000 young people participated in 2021, 15,000 young people and this year is expected to reach 50,000. Young people spend a month providing military services. Macron does not yield and wants it to be mandatory from 2024.
In the past year, projects to revive military service are being consolidated in Germany, Latvia and Lithuania. The Netherlands, due to lack of volunteers, is in the study phase. According to this blog, Norway and Sweden are the countries that are studying the restoration of compulsory military service. In these Scandinavian countries, all young people who are “military age” are called to perform a series of competitive tests, some of which perform military service.
Generation that you want to send to war?
The authors of this article point out that senior military officials in some countries are anticipating a “high-intensity war” between the armies of Europe and Asia between 2027 and 2030. Prior to the war between Ukraine and Russia, Paris increased its annual military budget by EUR 3 billion. Subsequently, the NATO countries have also committed themselves to allocating billions of euros that would not be left over for other social needs to buy arms.
If the growth being made by the countries of the European Union, with Germany in the lead, the military budget adds to the conflict direction that relations between the states are taking in geopolitics, this article lists the decisions that the countries are making.
The EU is reforming its transport system, especially trains and motorways, to adapt it to the needs that the supposed war against Russia could meet. The main objective of the new Czech presidency has been the redesign of agricultural policy from a strategic perspective of "food security". Recruitment systems are also expanding.
In Poland, the military budget has recently been approved to reach 5 per cent of the total budget from one year to the next and has changed the system of recruiting citizens in order to double the army.
The article is worded as follows:
"The European military, with a 2030 perspective, are gradually creating material conditions for that war, from country to country, but very quickly. They expect "the number of casualties we haven't seen after the Second World War," according to the French army's chief on the basis of an exposition of closed doors in the country's parliament. According to these strategic scenarios of the European states, all people born around 2012 are those who are currently 10 years of age who have the greatest chance of going to a mass war since a Second World War."