Compulsory military service back in Europe?

In May, Italy’s Lega (far right) led by Matteo Salvini presented a bill to introduce compulsory military or civilian service for all 18-26 year olds, lasting six months. Military service was abolished in Italy in 2005.

The participation of nationalist parties in an increasing number of European governments, an ageing population and almost four years of the war in Ukraine have led to a strengthening of militaristic tendencies. Today, several European governments seem intent on extending military service to meet growing defence needs and geopolitical tensions, for which of course the European Union bears its share of responsibility.

Spain abolished compulsory military service in 2001, France in 1996, Germany in 2011, Belgium in 1994 and the UK all the way back in 1963. Iceland has no national army, while Ireland has never had compulsory military service. Now, however, the picture is beginning to change.

Considering conscription

In July, debate engulfed Germany on the reintroduction of military service, as well as the inclusion of women. The initiative was not taken by the Christian Democrats (it was in fact Angela Merkel who abolished military service in 2011), but by the Social Democratic Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who pledged to reform the army after years of “neglect”. Pistorius, a very popular figure in the country, announced a plan to increase the armed forces from 181,000 to 203,000. However, this will not be a traditional form of compulsory military service. According to Pistorius’s plan, all men and women with a German passport will receive an official letter at the age of 18 inviting them to consider basic military service lasting six months, with the possibility of extending it to 17 months.

Young German men will be obligated to fill in a questionnaire providing information on their marital status, interests, position with regard to firearms, academic knowledge and personal health. For women, responding to this questionnaire will be optional.

The German constitution provides that in special circumstances the government can ask women to serve, but not to take up arms. Germany is trying to replicate the Swedish model, introduced in 2017 and based on a selective process that does not involve automatic conscription based on age but uses special criteria to identify the most capable individuals.

In the last decade, Lithuania was the first country to change its position on this issue. The Baltic country reinstated conscription in 2015, a year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea . Latvia followed suit in the summer of 2022, five months after Russian troops entered Ukraine.

In Serbia, compulsory military service was abolished in 2011, and since then the armed forces have been composed exclusively of professional soldiers. However, in September, President Aleksandar Vučić, who also serves as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, approved the reintroduction of 75-day conscription as of 2025.

Not everyone is in favour of the return of military service. In the United Kingdom, on the eve of the 2023 elections, the proposal put forward by Sunak’s Conservative government to introduce compulsory military or civilian service provoked angry reactions on social media, especially from Gen-Z. The Labour Party has made clear its opposition to a reinstatement of conscription.

In Spain the effect of the war in Ukraine is less evident. No party (not even on the far right) has dared to open a debate similar to the one taking place in many other European countries. According to experts, the reasons for this go beyond geography, and include the weight of recent history and the hard-won struggles by dissident movements in the 1980s and 1990s to end compulsory military service.

The current defence minister, socialist Margarita Robles, continues to deny the usefulness of a return to the past. “I don’t think the idea has crossed anyone’s mind,” she told the Senate Defence Committee in March when asked if the government intended to reinstate military service.

“It would be political suicide,” points out sociologist Rafael Azangith, a former professor at the University of The Basque Country and author of books on military service and conscientious objection.

“Although the defence of military service is usually associated with the far right, and its abolition is associated with left-wing positions, reducing the debate to this dichotomy is far too simplistic,” argues Alberto Bueno, professor of political science at the University of Granada and an expert on military issues. “In countries that feel threatened, for example, even social-democratic parties are in favour of reintroducing military service.”

A professional army

The Czech Republic is one of those countries where the population’s support for military service has increased since the outbreak of the Ukrainian war. However, the number of people in favour is still below 50 percent, and therefore no party is serious about proposing a return to the past. Bulgaria abolished compulsory military service in 2007, and has since had an army composed exclusively of professional soldiers. In September 2024, Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov announced that Bulgaria will not return to compulsory military service, but that a number of forms of military training for the population are being discussed.

In Austria, unlike most other European countries, there has always existed – and still exists, for a duration of six months – compulsory military service for all men, who can, however, choose the alternative of civil service for nine months. The survival of universal conscription is linked to the fact that Austria has only 9 million inhabitants and has not had a strong military tradition since the end of the Second World War.

There is also a distinct historical component: in the Austrian civil war between the First and Second World Wars, soldiers controlled by the Conservative Party fired on civilians, mostly members of the Labour Party. Because of this history, the idea of a professional army without universal conscription has been taboo for years, and not just for centrist and left-wing parties.

The Finnish model

In early 2024, Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias announced a change in the armed forces’ recruitment system inspired by the Finnish model, which would open up the possibility of voluntary conscription for women. Visiting Finland in April, Dendias stated that the ministry was considering some radical changes in the conscription system, “not regarding the duration or the replacement of conscripts with professional soldiers – an idea we reject because we believe in a civil army – but with the aim of making military service an important period and not a ‘waste of time’ as it is considered today by our young people. We want fast and efficient training, modelled on that provided in Finland”.

In Finland military service is compulsory for men between the ages of 18 and 60, and optional for women between the ages of 18 and 29. The duration varies: 165 days for unqualified conscripts, 255 days for those in special categories (nurses, officers, musicians, priests, people with technical expertise), 347 days for reservists, non-commissioned officers and conscripts subject to intensive activity (drivers, divers, speedboat pilots, special forces, lawyers), 255-347 days for non-weapons service and 347 days for non-military service (social work).

👉 Original article on Efimerida ton Synktaton

🤝 This article is part of the PULSE project , a European initiative to promote cross-border journalistic cooperation