Restore military service? Michel Barnier’s proposal under the microscope

During the LR debate on Sunday evening broadcast on Europe 1 and CNEWS, Michel Barnier affirmed that he would restore compulsory military service if he were elected President of the Republic. A system which, according to the candidate for the presidential election, “has worked for nearly two centuries for unity, to bring the French together, for diversity and social mixing”. “I think we miss this engine of Republican integration today,” he added. But here it is: military service is not the solution to all ills, as history has shown us.

Military service, an idea defended by the left?

At the time, military service had two vocations. The first was to raise a mass army with a cohort of young people ready to fight for the nation. The second mission was the role of melting pot of the nation. The idea was to promote social mixing, to bring together young people who see each other and who constitute the nation of tomorrow.

Paradoxically, it was an idea defended by the left. The right, it, rather defended the idea of ​​a professional army. What is striking is that the idea of ​​the army as the crucible of the nation is now defended by the right.

Why armies don’t want it

However, if we inspect the question of the restoration of military service in a technical way, the armies do not want it because the French army is a professional army. Second, restoring military service would be very complicated from a logistical point of view. It would take at least fifteen years to put it back in place.

Because we no longer have the barracks, we have closed regiments and we no longer have the personnel to train all these young French people who would come to train in the handling of weapons and war techniques. The problem is that the right tries to respond to all the failures of society with the help of the army.