{"id":598073,"date":"2025-11-27T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/598073\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T23:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:15:20","slug":"macron-launches-voluntary-military-service-amid-tensions-with-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/598073\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron launches voluntary military service amid tensions with Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nov. 27 (UPI) &#8212; French President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/topic\/Emmanuel-Macron\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Emmanuel Macron\" class=\"tpstyle\" rel=\"noopener\">Emmanuel Macron<\/a> announced on Thursday the creation of a new voluntary military service amid concerns about a possible confrontation with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Calling it an &#8220;act of trust in our youth,&#8221; Macron made the announcement in a speech to troops stationed at a base just outside of Grenoble in southeast France, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c0edw7g7z79o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the BBC reported<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>The new service will launch next summer, offering monthly payments to recruits, mostly aged 18 and 19, of at least 800 euros, or about $930, a month for 10 months of training, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The only way to avoid danger is to prepare for it,&#8221; Macron said. &#8220;We need to mobilise, mobilising the nation to defend itself, to be ready and remain respected.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p>The new initiative seeks to recruit 3,000 initial volunteers and steadily increase to 50,000 youth joining by 2035, &#8220;depending on evolving threats,&#8221; with volunteers having the option to stay in the military or become reservists, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/europe\/military-youth-service-a-cold-war-relic-makes-a-comeback-in-france-9d873152?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqeA342yV-7D5rvHctyvNA_T8j2P5FktTdEERcL9xd_8sEvM46EKG8Tx&amp;gaa_ts=6928d3c2&amp;gaa_sig=GcDPRpJHhAn63S9v9-TMPoWPxAi6V6TnfrxhR8sVtwPU5G6SlOezCvVdYubjCSd4eE4squjE04AVlh5JTuFvSQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t go back to the times of conscription, but we&#8217;re in need of mobilization,&#8221; Macron said.<\/p>\n<p>Macron has actively sought to bolster Ukraine&#8217;s defense against Russia&#8217;s ongoing invasion. France <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2025\/11\/17\/Ukraine-France-sign-deal-for-advanced-fighter\/8331763384685\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recently signed a deal<\/a> to sell Ukraine 100 advanced fighter jets. More broadly, Macron helped spearhead the creation of the so-called &#8220;Coalition of the Willing,&#8221; a group of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2025\/09\/04\/France-Ukraine-coalition-weighs-security-gurantees\/1221756986232\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">34 mostly European countries<\/a> willing to offer more security backing to Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>In his speech, Macron did not call out Russia, but said he was launching the initiative &#8220;at a time when all our European allies are moving forward in the face of a threat that weighs on us all, France cannot remain immobile,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/27\/world\/europe\/france-military-service.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other European countries, including Germany, Denmark and Poland, have looked into ways to increase the ranks of their respective armed forces, according to the Times.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the idea that he was planning to attack Europe.<\/p>\n<p>However, the specter of a confrontation between Russia and France has loomed, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Gen Fabien Mandon, France&#8217;s chief of staff, raised alarms when he said the French military was planning around the assumption of a conflict with Russia in the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nov. 27 (UPI) &#8212; French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday the creation of a new voluntary military&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[473,34,332,2582,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-598073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-emmanuel-macron","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115624209516000808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}