ITALY
Italy’s Minister for the Interior says he is considering the reintroduction of compulsory national service for the country’s young citizens.
Matteo Salvini, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, said a return to military service would establish the fact that young people had “duties” as well as “rights”.
“We are doing well to study the costs, ways and timings for evaluating if, how and when to reintroduce — for a few months — obligatory military and civil service for our boys and girls,” Mr Salvini said.
He said this would help them learn some “education” that their parents seemed incapable of teaching them.
Mr Salvini has repeatedly expressed his support for compulsory military service, both as a tool for social cohesion and integration, we well as for training young people to use arms responsibly.
He said he did a spell of voluntary military service at the Montello barracks in Milan, which in 2016 were repurposed as a holding centre for 300 asylum seekers, prompting the far-right leader to attend protests calling for their relocation.
His Northern League political party drafted legislation last year proposing conscription but failed to gain parliamentary support.
The League’s coalition partner, the populist Five Star Movement, is unlikely to back the proposal.
France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands all suspended or abolished the draft in the 1990s. Sweden and Germany followed suit in 2010 and 2011.
Regional tensions, high youth unemployment and social discontent have triggered renewed interest in national mobilisation across Europe.
In 2015, Lithuania reintroduced military conscription, citing tensions in the Baltic region after Russia annexed Crimea. Sweden reintroduced it at the start of this year, applying the draft to both men and women, like Norway.
In June, French President, Emmanuel Macron introduced a month-long national service placement for all 16-year-olds, followed by a second optional phase.
More recently, Germany’s ruling CDU launched a debate over reintroducing some kind of civilian or military national service for young people.
Rome, 14 August, 2018
