France brings back national service for all 16-year-olds

France will re-introduce mandatory 'national service' for all young 16-year-old
Conscript service will last one month with an option to extend up to a year
The national service was a campaign pledge by Emmanuel Macron

Published: 08:36 BST, 28 June 2018 | Updated: 15:31 BST, 28 June 2018

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France is bringing back compulsory national service for 16-year-olds, fulfilling one of President Emmanuel Macron's campaign pledges.

Conscripts will be made to serve for one month, with a focus on civic service as well as military training, and the option of extending the placement of up to a year.

Military conscript service was scrapped in 1996, leaving Macron the first ever French President not to have been drafted.

It's back: French President Emmanuel Macron is bringing back compulsory national service for 16-year-olds

During his presidential campaign, Macron promised to make all young people spend a month getting 'a direct experience of military life with its know-how and demands'.

He billed it as a way to build social cohesion and patriotism in a country battling deep divisions, by bringing young people from different backgrounds together in a barracks.

The new Service National Universel [Universal National Service], which is being trialled from 2019 is reportedly a watered-down version of Macron's original idea.

The mandatory one-month placement is intended to 'enable young people to create new relationships and develop their role in society,' according to the French government.

Focus will be on charity work as well as traditional military training which will be carried out within the police, emergency services or the French army.

Military fan: Macron watches the annual Bastille Day military parade in Paris last July, in the company of U.S. President Donald Trump

Once the month is completed, the conscripts will have the option of extending the service of three months to a year.

France's last conscripts were demobilised in 2001, ending nearly a century of military service which saw millions of men put through their paces.

While some French men look back fondly on their stint in the army, many middle-class youths called in well-placed contacts - or feigned mental health problems - to duck out of it.

In January, Macron - the first French president not to have been called up to serve, having come of age after it ended - insisted he was not trying to resurrect the tradition which was ended by ex-president Jacques Chirac.

He said his aim was to give young men and women alike 'causes to defend and battles to fight in the social, environmental and cultural domains.'