Government party wants to double up on military service recruits

Union for enlisted soldiers calls the idea “foolish”

A day after Sweden brought back its compulsory military service for the first time since scrapping it in 2010, the Danish government coalition party Konservative has announced that it wants the number of its compulsory military service recruits significantly increased.

Rasmus Jarlov, the spokesperson regarding defence issues for Konservative, proposed to double the number of compulsory military service recruits to 8,000 annually.

“We see compulsory military service as a key part of the Danish Defence, and considering that we used to have far more recruits, we think it’s only natural to up the number of recruits to strengthen the defence as the government has pledged to do,” Jarlov told Radio24syv.

“We need to increase the number considerable, because today we can only mobilise 18 regiments of infantry, and that’s simply too little.”

The number of compulsory military service recruits has steadily declined from 6,119 in 2006 to 4,179 today.

READ MORE: Government proposes scrapping military service

Vinther of discontent
But despite that, Flemming Vinther, the head of the union for enlisted soldiers HKKF, described the Konservative proposal as being “foolish”.

“Eight out of the ten recruits that are sent home is down to the Defence not having room for them or need for them,” Vinther told Radio24syv.

“So it’s a terrible costly recruitment machine that Konservative now want to start up. Compulsory military service belongs to a time where it was about mobilising a lot of young people to protect Denmark from an attack. It’s not like that today.”

Vinther argued that upping compulsory military service would increase security in Denmark, as Jarlov contended, was factually incorrect and based on a national-romantic conception that as long as there are a lot of young people who can go to war, Denmark will be more safe.

The defence minister, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, has yet to comment on the issue, but his party (Venstre) has indicated that the topic is of importance.

In 2012, the Helle Thorning-Schmidt-led government at the time proposed to end compulsory military service and save the state coffers half a billion kroner. But opposition parties, including Konservative, were against it.

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