But suggests it could be offered to young offenders…
Nuno Melo, Portugal’s new minister of National Defence has admitted that “today there are no political conditions” to re-impose compulsory military service – in spite of what military commanders may be thinking.
The best way to encourage young people into the Armed Forces, he said, is to offer better conditions for entering university and/ or the civil service.
At a dinner conference for the 13th edition of Universidade Europa – a PSD political training initiative – the CDS leader and former MEP also argued that military service could be an alternative for young people who commit minor offences instead of being placed in institutions that, ‘in most cases, only function as a criminal school for life’.
“How many of these young people, if instead of being institutionalised without any conditions, could do military service, have the opportunity to exercise training, authority and values, could not later be much better citizens and simply not have been given that opportunity?”, he quizzed.
According to Lusa, “both in his opening speech and in answering questions from the ‘students’ of this political training initiative, the Defence Minister rejected the return of compulsory military service.
“We don’t need compulsory military service, there aren’t even the political conditions at the moment to impose compulsory military service. But there are a number of possibilities that involve situations that have already been tried out in other countries, such as Sweden”.
Mr Melo gave the example that “a year of voluntary military experience” which, on its conclusion, could make it “easier for young people to go to university” or “join the civil service in certain areas” could be “a way” for those who like the idea of military life signing a contract with the Armed Forces.
“We have to create conditions so that young people can have this option, which has to be attractive, and we’re going to try to do it,” he said, encouraging the 70 or so young people present at the Europa University to “try it out.
“Help show an entire country that the Armed Forces are not a thing of the past, but our identity. I guarantee that many of you would enjoy it”, he challenged.
At a dinner with the theme ‘The EU of Defence and Security’, the minister also warned of what he considered to be an injustice in the treatment of the military when fighting fires.
“The only difference is that while a firefighter fighting fires and other organisations have supplements attributed to them – and rightly so, because we’re talking about highly dangerous duties – a member of the military does exactly the same thing and doesn’t get paid any more for it, and that’s one of the things I want to change…”
Nuno Melo reiterated the PSD/CDS government’s commitment to ‘doing justice’ with regard to former combatants, criticising the PS for the way it has traditionally handled defence.
“Every time the left has governed, the Armed Forces have fallen by the wayside”, he told his audience.
The Minister of National Defence pointed to NATO as the first guarantee of global peace and promised that Portugal will ‘realistically’ move towards the commitment to invest 2% of its Gross Domestic Product in Defence, and strengthen its commitment to military university education and the military industry.
At the end of the event, the minister “made an appeal to the young people taking part” to vote in the European elections next month, saying “we have to win!”
Elsewhere, Correio da Manhã tabloid has published the results of the ‘first opinion poll’ since the elections – and it shows PS Socialists ahead of the AD government in terms of voting intentions.
Indeed, the study by Intercampus, suggests AD has ‘fallen sharply’ in people’s voting intentions in just the last month and a half. ND
Source material: LUSA
