Austria: government votes to extend military service
The Austrian government wants to extend compulsory military service from six to nine months. Its 6+3 scheme is intended to boost the Austrian army's operational readiness and better prepare soldiers for crisis and defence tasks. To make military service more attractive, holiday entitlement will be introduced and pay will be hiked up to 1,000 euros a month. The press is very sceptical.
Expensive and underwhelming
Kronen Zeitung is disappointed by the reforms agreed on by the three-party coalition consisting of the conservative ÖVP, the social-democratic SPÖ and the liberal Neos party:
“The compromise model is called '6+3'. It's an expensive model, not just because soldiers will receive higher pay but because civilian service is also to be extended – albeit only on a 'voluntary basis'. The result is what has become the norm with this government: the very lowest common denominator. Something that everyone can somehow go along with? No, on the contrary: a compromise, a lowest common denominator, that no one can be truly happy with, and no one is. Yet another initiative that is nothing to write home about.”
How to make the army less appealing
Der Standard objects:
“Extending military service from six to nine months without doing the same for civilian service will make the army less appealing to young men. Which is why the three coalition partners agreed on the 'military service guarantee': if the number of conscripts drops more than 7.5 percent below 15,000, civilian service will be permanently extended to eleven months. But why not do it straight away? It's clear that it will come to this anyway. After all, many young men only chose the Austrian Armed Forces because the service period was three months shorter. If this time factor is removed, many will opt for civilian service.”
'Zivis' are essential
Info.cz points out:
“Austria is one of the few countries in Europe that still has compulsory military service. The main reason for this, however, is not the desire to keep the army in good fighting form, but concern over how the country would cope without those in community service. Young men who refuse to do military service can opt to do community service instead. ... As almost half of all conscripts choose this second option, the so-called 'Zivis', who work in hospitals or care homes, are a critical component of the Austrian social system. All attempts to abolish compulsory military service have thus failed so far – precisely because of fears about a shortage of Zivis and the impossibility of replacing them.”