France redraws the line – a voluntary military service for a generation that never thought about war and how the times have changed

France is changing something fundamental in its relationship between the state and society. A country that has lived in peace for decades is introducing a paid, voluntary military service for young adults. Not as a nostalgia project, but as a response to a situation that no one in Europe can ignore anymore: the pressure from Moscow, the military buildup around the EU and the fading belief that peace is something guaranteed. Emmanuel Macron presented the step in the French Alps, at a location that looks more like mountain calm than a political keynote stage. The president said that a generation was ready to serve its country – and that the state had to finally give that willingness a structure. In a Europe “in which force is once again standing above law”, as he put it, France cannot remain unprepared.

Emmanuel Macron warns that France must not give an image of weakness – and at the same time prepares a new voluntary military service aimed at strengthening the country’s defense capability in view of the threat posed by Russia.

The new service is aimed at young people who are at the start of their lives and decisions. Ten months, one month of basic training, the rest distributed across different areas of duty. Volunteers receive equipment, clothing and a monthly payment of around 800 euros – not generous, but a signal that this is a real service and not symbolic youth education. Foreign deployments are excluded. At the end of the program, volunteers can either switch to the army or enter the reserves. France is not alone in this. Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022, states across Europe have reorganized their old certainties. Croatia has brought back conscription. Poland wants to make some form of military training available to every young man. Denmark has begun drafting women. Germany is openly discussing an expansion of recruitment. And on the other side of the Baltic Sea, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania already have models that are more universal than much of what Western Europe is used to.

In France itself, however, this new program is becoming charged – not least because of the words of the country’s top general. General Fabien Mandon said a few days ago that France had to accept that a future war “could mean the loss of our children”. It was a sentence that split the country and immediately opened the question of whether the political leadership was preparing the public for a different reality. The general warned that Russia was, in his view, preparing for a potential confrontation by 2030. Municipalities and towns should encourage young people not to rely on outside interpretations of the situation but to become part of the country’s own defense capability. His message was clear: France has economic strength, population and knowledge – but it must learn that security always comes at a price.

Macron presented a new voluntary military service that lasts ten months and is paid at 800 euros per month. At the start in 2026, 3,000 young people are to participate, and by 2035 the program is to grow to 50,000 places. Only in the case of a severe national crisis could Parliament exceptionally transform the voluntary service into a mandatory one.

Some politicians considered Mandon’s warning unnecessarily sharp. Macron defended him, saying that his words had been distorted – and that no one in France would be sent to fight in Ukraine. At the same time, he emphasized that the bond between the population and the army had to be strengthened. This is exactly the political axis on which the new service rests. The step does not come without criticism. Some see it as an attempt to draw young people with an unfavorable payment into a program whose purpose remains unclear to them. Manon Aubry from “La France Insoumise” put it harshly: the president offered young people nothing other than “preparing them for his wars”. She points to the payment, which is below minimum wage – and the question of whether a state with tight budgets and growing debt should really shoulder a new major program.

The mental and state-level militarization continues – just like in the years before the First and Second World Wars. France is now introducing a voluntary military service for young people from the age of 18, as Macron has announced. In essence, Paris is following countries like Belgium and Germany, which have already returned to voluntary forms of conscription.

At the same time, surveys show that almost four out of five people in France support the new service. The country has witnessed for years how Russia has pressured European states through energy policy, influence operations and military force. The fact that Macron describes the situation without dramatizing it seems to convince many. The French army, which has around 200,000 active personnel and 45,000 reservists, wants to take in 3,000 volunteers next year and increase the number to 50,000 within ten years. The program will therefore grow – and it will reveal much about where France wants to move in terms of security policy.

The French army chief Fabien Mandon has said that one must expect a possible military conflict with Russia around the year 2030 – and even accept that young people of one’s own may die as a result. Critics see in this the attempt to psychologically prepare the population for a larger confrontation. At the same time, it is emphasized that the situation today is not comparable to 1940 and that Russia has no interest in invading Western Europe. What it could truly come down to is a conflict scenario like 1914 – triggered by alliance obligations. If France had to fight, then probably not for the defense of its own territory, but for the protection of other NATO states such as Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia.

The government nevertheless presents the situation as if France itself were facing an imminent threat. Anyone who contradicts that is quickly labeled as “appeasing”. According to the criticism, the actual danger for France lies less in Russia than in the political inability to step out of certain alliance logics.

What remains is a Europe that is slowly getting used to a new era. The fear of sending the wrong signal runs deep. But the idea that peace persists on its own no longer holds. France has decided to make this new reality public – and no longer hide it behind budget figures, diplomatic phrasing or European voting patterns.