France unveils a 10-month voluntary military service as Macron responds to rising security concerns and growing Russian threats

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced that France will introduce a 10-month voluntary military service from next year, unveiling one of the country’s most significant defence shifts in decades during a speech at Varces-Allières-et-Risset in southeastern France.

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Macron said the scheme, which revives elements of national service nearly 30 years after France ended conscription, would initially target young adults aged 18 and 19 who wish to serve.

He stressed that volunteers would be deployed solely within national territory.

The programme is expected to begin next summer with 3,000 participants, rising gradually to 10,000 by 2030 and 50,000 by 2035.

The announcement comes as France continues to warn of growing security risks posed by Russia, now more than three and a half years into its invasion of Ukraine.

Macron reiterated that a wider mobilisation could be authorised only in exceptional circumstances, saying parliament could make service mandatory during a major national crisis.

The proposal follows a week of political turbulence triggered by armed forces chief of staff General Fabien Mandon, who caused a public uproar by warning that France must prepare for potential confrontation and “be ready to lose its children”.

Macron sought to calm concerns, emphasising that France is not planning to send young people to Ukraine, and insisting the new project is designed to strengthen national defence rather than prepare for active deployment abroad.

General Mandon defended his remarks, saying his intention was to alert the nation to a rapidly worsening security climate.

His comments underscored a wider European trend, with countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Denmark reintroducing or tightening their own service obligations as they react to regional instability.

France currently has around 200,000 active military personnel and 47,000 reservists, figures expected to rise to 210,000 and 80,000, respectively, by 2030.

Officials argue that the new service will expand the pool of trained reservists and bolster long-term defence resilience.

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Despite political criticism from parts of the left, the government maintains that the initiative is necessary to prepare the country for a shifting security environment, describing the scheme as a pragmatic step rather than a provocative one.