Michele Tantussi/Getty Images(PARIS) — During his presidential campaign in 2017, Emmanual Macron promised to bring back compulsory national service.
Now, 20 years after the end of the military service system in France, President Macron seems poised to deliver on that promise. The French government has announced that new national service could be put in place as early as next year.
In a report published on its website Wednesday, the government said the objective of the service is to “promote engagement of young people in the nation’s life, to value citizenship and reinforce social cohesion.”
The new national service will be divided into two phases: one mandatory for all 16-year-olds, and another voluntary.
During the first mandatory phase, which will last a month, teenagers will live collectively, enabling them to create new relationships and to develop their cultural engagement as well as their role in society, the government announced.
The second voluntary phase will last at least three months and up to a year. Young French people will be encouraged to serve “in an area linked to defense and security, as well as the environment, heritage preservation or social care,” the French education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, told the press on Wednesday.
French youth organizations have criticized the proposed new national service. In an opinion column published this month in French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, 14 organizations opposed to the program argued that teenagers should be able to exercise freedom of choice.
The government said it will start consultations with youth organizations, students’ parents and teachers next fall to gather additional ideas and work on logistics such as housing and supervision of teenagers during the service. The new program is expected to be implemented progressively starting in 2019.
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