Macron talks tough - military service plan
FRANCE: Emmanuel Macron, the French presidential frontrunner, is seeking to bolster his law-and-order credentials with a proposal to restore compulsory military service.
Following a string of terrorist attacks, security is at the forefront of the election campaign and the centrist candidate announced the policy yesterday - a day after a known radicalised Muslim was shot dead in an attempted attack at Orly airport.
France abolished military service under Jacques Chirac in 1997, but Macron said he would oblige young people to serve one month in the armed forces between the ages of 18 and 21.
‘‘I want each young French person to be able to experience military life, even briefly,’’ Macron said, arguing that the move would ‘‘allow our democracy to be more united and increase the resilience of our society’’.
He raised the idea, which is not mentioned in his election manifesto, as Marine Le Pen’s Front National renewed accusations that her rivals are ‘‘soft on terrorism’’.
Macron is predicted to face Le Pen in the decisive second round of the election, which takes place in five weeks. The conservative candidate, Francois Fillon, who has been dogged by financial scandal, is expected to be eliminated in the first round.
Polls suggest Macron, 39, will beat Le Pen, 48, by a wide margin, but he will need to convince enough conservatives to back him without alienating his core supporters young, urban liberals.
A former economy minister under the unpopular Socialist president Francois Hollande, Macron has won the support of a handful of centre-Right figures.
But he was clearly rattled last week at the prospect of backing from allies of the president, including the former prime minister, Manuel Valls. If he is too closely identified with Hollande, he risks losing the crucial centre-Right support he will need to defeat Le Pen, commentators say.
Hollande is publicly reserving judgment but is believed to favour Macron privately. Macron’s military service proposal, designed to appeal to Right-wingers who agree with Le Pen that the Socialist government failed to provide security, could easily backfire.
‘‘Where does Mr Macron intend to find the euro 15 billion (NZ$23b) he says it will cost to set up the initial infrastructure, plus up to euro 3 billion a year to run the scheme?’’ a senior military officer asked. ’’That’s more than half the cost of the nuclear deterrent.’’
Eric Ciotti, an MP from the centre-Right Republicans party, described the national service plan as ‘‘gimmick... that serves no purpose’’. - Telegraph Group