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France To Bring Back Mandatory National Service For All 16-Year Olds Amid Popular Support
Swarajya Staff
Jun 29, 2018, 06:34 PM | Updated 06:34 PM IST
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The French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday (28 June) announced that the country is bringing mandatory national service for all 16-year olds, after having disbanded compulsory military service over 20 years ago, CNN has reported.
Every French citizen will have to serve in the program, called the Universal National Service, when he or she attains 16 years of age.
The program will consist of two parts, for the first month, the participants will have to live together to "develop a culture of commitment to strengthen their place and role in society."
The second part will entail a voluntary commitment of three months, where the participants will be asked to choose from services like, national security and defence, or civil services like preservation of national monuments and environment, fire service etc.
The program will "encourage the participation and commitment of every young person in the life of the nation, to value citizenship and the feeling of belonging to a community gathered around its values, to strengthen social cohesion and boost the republican melting pot,” a statement from the presidential house read.
The measure enjoys popular support amongst the French public with a February 2018 poll having showed that 60 per cent of the people supported a compulsory national service of between three and six months.
The program will reportedly start at the beginning of 2019 school year.
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