The effort, aimed at young people, came after an army chief angered many by saying the country must accept the possible loss of “our children” in a future war.
France on Thursday announced the creation of a paid, voluntary military service for young adults, becoming the latest European country to beef up its armed forces in the face of perceived threats from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The move sharpened a growing debate in France, which has enjoyed decades of stability since the end of World War II, about how to prepare a population no longer accustomed to war for a new era of increased military peril.
The announcement by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, came days after the French Army chief set off a national uproar for saying that the country must accept the possible loss of its children in a potential future conflict.
“There is a generation ready to stand up for their country, and our military is the natural outlet for this desire to serve,” Mr. Macron said in a speech at a mountain infantry base in Varces-Allières-et-Risset, a small town in the French Alps, in southeastern France.
“In this uncertain world where force prevails over law and war is a reality, our nation cannot be afraid, ill-prepared or divided,” he added.
France, where military conscription was eliminated in 1997, is following in the footsteps of other European countries that were alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and that have accused the Kremlin of waging “hybrid warfare” against them.
Croatia restored conscription this year, nearly two decades after abolishing it. In Poland, there are efforts to make a form of military training available for every adult man. Denmark has begun drafting women. In Germany, Parliament is set to debate a bill to increase military recruitment. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, former Soviet states, all have variations of a draft.
While Mr. Macron did not explicitly mention Russia in his speech, he said that “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.”
