Prague, June 26 (CTK) – Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) Friday supported the idea of selective recruitment instead of the renewal of universal conscription, which the government proposed but the lower house defence committee rejected.
Stropnicky said universal conscription was pushed through by other government offices than the military, which always promoted selective recruitment because it needs specific professions.
“I believe a certain form of voluntariness could be a solution,” he said, adding that it would be a question how the public would react to the voluntary draft.
Stropnicky said he hoped that the Chamber of Deputies would find an alternative solution, such as voluntary draft along with obligatory military training. He said he expects a dramatic debate on the conscription bill.
The centre-left government of Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) wanted to reintroduce regular conscription of 18-year-olds. This would concern about 100,000 youths a year. The government argued that it would gain information about the health condition of the population and its readiness to take part in defending the country if it were threatened.
But the Chamber’s defence committee opposed the universal conscription. The Defence Ministry then proposed a voluntary system of reserve troops, the members of the committee said.
Young people who would be voluntarily drafted would undergo a three-month military training within two years.
At present, there are some 1200 reservists.
The current conscription law does not allow for call-ups or military training at peace time. Since 2005, everything has been voluntary and the service only refers to professional soldiers and members of active reserves units.
The Defence Ministry currently employs approximately 21,000 soldiers, while about 27,600 would be needed to fulfil the tasks that the military has, according to former chief-of-staff Petr Pavel who has taken the post of NATO Military Committee chairman Friday.
Chief-of-Staff Josef Becvar said recruitment is crucial for the military for the reinforcement of the structure that must be ready for other times than peace. “We must have an answer for what would happen in a state of emergency and a state of war,” Becvar said.
He said the army needs specialists, mostly in IT and medicine.
