Why the need to rapidly expand its military? Is France planning to expand its colonial influence?
France has now announced it will be returning to compulsory military service starting from 2019.
“I want a mandatory service, open to women and men,” said Macron on Tuesday. He is claiming that service stints will last “around three months,” and possibly “longer if we integrate a civic service.”
NOTE: Emmanuel Macron is the first modern French President not to have done military service – having come of age after the government stopped national service between 1996 and 2001.
The Independent reports…
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.
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…
Read more at The Independent
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