Another EU country brings back conscription – 1,200 letters sent out | World | News
1,200 people have already been informed of their requirement to serve (Image: Getty)
Croatia is set to reintroduce conscription, 18 years after it scrapped the practice. The NATO member scrapped compulsory national service in 2008, the year before it was admitted to the defensive alliance.
The decision was taken in an attempt to professionalise its military and turn it into a solely voluntary force but after nearly two decades, the country is reintroducing mandatory service. The Balkans nation, with a population of around 3.9million, sits in relative close proximity to war-torn Ukraine, with only Putin apologist Viktor Orban’s Hungary lying between the two nations. After announcing the plans this year, around 1,200 men have received letters in the post informing them that they are required to complete two months of service.
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Military service would last around two months (Image: Getty)
In the wake of war in Ukraine and increased tensions in the Balkans, the paltry size of Croatia’s full-time military became a prominent source of discussion, with the plans to reintroduce national service receiving widespread popularity.
Currently, the country has just 15,000 full-time military personnel within its ranks.
During the 2024 parliamentary elections, the HDZ party outlined their plans to reestablish mandatory service before being duly re-elected.
At the time, Defense Minister Ivan Anusic said it would help young men change “bad habits” and prepare them for “any major threat.”
Gordan Akrap, the vice rector of Croatia’s Franjo Tudjman Defense and Security University said: “I don’t see any challenges to conscription.
“There are going to be more people who want to be part of this than are able to join because it’s a limited number at this moment.
“Some populist groups from the far left say we should invest in kindergartens and so on. But the fact is that someone needs to protect the kindergartens and our European way of life and democracy — and that can be done in the final stages by the army.”
The country has around 15,000 service personnel (Image: Getty)
Croatia is one of a number of former Yugoslavia republics considering reintroducing mandatory national service.
Under Josip Broz Tito’s socialist regime in Yugoslavia, young men were required to serve for a year in the armed forces, with the dictatorship boasting a ground force of 66% conscripts and a million trained reservists.
In 2020, a right-wing coalition government in Slovenia floated the idea of reestablishing military service, complaining that its 7,000 active members of the military were unable to effectively defend the country.
The current center-left government has resisted the idea but opinion polls suggest the country could return to the right in elections in March.
Meanwhile, Serbian Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic has claimed that legislation to introduce conscription would soon be brought before parliament.
He said: “Men will be obliged to serve in the military from the age of 18 to 30, and women will be allowed to serve voluntarily.”
