A-Infos (en) Italy, UCADI #203 - Conscription and the Militarization of Society (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The European Union's warmongering policy pushes its various member 
countries to adopt rearmament policies, accompanied by the mobilization 
of human resources, and to instill the belief in public opinion that war 
is imminent and inevitable and that it cannot be avoided. The tangible 
consequence of this choice is not only the allocation of economic 
resources to rearmament, diverting them from other uses such as economic 
development and social services, but also the reintroduction of 
conscription, which, beyond any transformative rhetoric, is in itself 
mandatory.
While the decision to allocate resources to rearmament is softened by 
the prospect of economic development through increased war production, 
which would guarantee employment and thus resolve the crisis in certain 
sectors, such as the automotive industry, and consequently free up 
resources for social investments, the mobilization of human resources is 
even more difficult for the population to digest, even though they 
currently seem apathetic, having forgotten what war is after 80 years of 
peace. Not that war hasn't occurred in recent years, but Europe has 
exported it, with the exception of the Yugoslav crisis, when it waged it 
by employing professional armies and pushing the Balkan populations into 
a fratricidal war that shattered the inviolability of borders, the 
principle of sovereignty, and international law.
To make the mobilization of human resources more palatable, conscription 
is disguised as voluntary mobilization, although variations are adopted 
depending on the country and its specific demographic and social situation.
Thus, while in France, a discredited government with nothing left to 
lose by being unpopular is planning a mandatory mobilization that forces 
citizens to make unpalatable choices, which would lead to battlefield 
service and the deaths of young people (statement by French Chief of 
Staff General Fabien Mandon), in Germany, a law is being developed to 
register the mobilizable population to randomly select those to be 
recalled in the event of insufficient volunteers.
In Great Britain, the Armed Forces have been an entirely professional 
and voluntary body since the 196th, although the Sunak government has 
attempted in vain to pass legislation to reintroduce conscription. On 
the other hand, the country's government is known for its ability to use 
others to wage war, maximizing its profit, as it does by training and 
mobilizing Ukrainians and sending them to slaughter.
In heavily armed Poland, after abolishing conscription in 2009, the 
government is working on mandatory voluntary military training programs 
for all citizens. The goal is to strengthen the armed forces, 
introducing basic defense courses and training for a potential reserve, 
while maintaining the option for conscientious objectors to opt for 
civilian service. The Baltic countries maintain their Lilliputian armies 
and limit themselves to imposing a bellicose policy against Russia on 
the entire Union, through the Kretina Kaja Kallas.
Then there is the Baltic model: in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, 
military conscription is mandatory for all. In the first two countries, 
the law is mandatory for both men and women and was reinstated between 
2016 and 2018. In Denmark, it will be reinstated from 2026, preferring 
volunteers and using a lottery if there are not enough volunteers (a 
system that inspired the German one). Citizens are subjected to a 
selection process that includes civilian or military service. Personal 
motivations are taken into account, and alternative service and 
conscientious objection are permitted. The length of service ranges from 
11 to 15 months. In Finland, military conscription is mandatory for all 
adult males (18 and older), lasting from 6 to 12 months. There is also a 
fixed-term civilian service option of 12 months, while women can enlist 
voluntarily. All these conscription systems provide a large pool of 
reservists.
The conscription of women, sometimes mandatory, sometimes voluntary, 
justified on the grounds of gender equality, is actually necessitated by 
the demographic situation of these countries, which do not have a 
sufficient population to fill the ranks of the army, especially given 
the reluctance of many citizens to perform military service, let alone 
participate in conflicts.

Furthermore, France and Spain supplement their national armies with 
volunteer corps such as the Foreign Legion for France and the Spanish 
Legion, known as the Tercio. These elite formations are composed of 
soldiers from various countries, but their officers are predominantly 
nationals.
To address the demographic crisis and the growing reluctance of young 
people to perform military service, some countries such as the United 
States have introduced a system allowing foreigners to serve as a means 
of obtaining citizenship.

The Italian situation

In Italy, compulsory military service was abolished in 2004 and replaced 
by a professional army.
The Army currently has fewer than 100,000 men (94,000), the Navy 
approximately 29,000, and the Air Force 38,500.
These are the armed forces of the Republic, to which must be added 
approximately 107,000 Carabinieri, 58,000 Finance Police, and 10,000 
Coast Guard personnel; these "wear the stars," meaning they are part of 
corps or branches that have military status and are subject to military 
discipline. Then there is the State Police and the Penitentiary Police, 
approximately 30,000 men in total. Spending on the armed forces is 
EUR7.2 billion (EUR594 each). As can be seen, Italy certainly has no 
shortage of people in uniform!
But according to Chief Dragone, the admiral who, before being president 
of the NATO Military Committee, was Chief of the Defence Staff, i.e., 
the military head of the State's defence, in a hearing before the Joint 
Commission In light of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies' defense, 
the armed forces today face three needs: the first is to rebalance the 
personnel, which must be adapted to new requirements; the second is to 
balance the permanent service component, that is, the component that 
considers that profession theirs for life, from age 19 to age 63; the 
third is to provide a reserve to deal with long or short-term crises. 
This type of reserve is called the State Auxiliary Reserve by law and is 
provided for by Law 119 of 2022, Article 9, and consists of 10,000 men. 
It is a widespread opinion in political and military circles that this 
model does not hold up under the new regulatory framework.
Disaggregating the data provided thus far, we note that of the 94,000 
men at its disposal, 61,000 (61%) constitute the troops, more than half 
of whom are over the age of 40, 25% of the personnel therefore 
unemployable; 21,000 non-commissioned officers and 11,000 Officers. The 
38,500 are distributed across 50-52 ships. If the other branches of the 
military are added to the army, the total is 155,800. The minimum 
increases needed for the navy are 6,000 to 9,000 men; there are no 
figures for the air force and army.

But as mentioned, the state military forces are not limited to the armed 
forces, and if we add to these the Carabinieri, who are also deployable 
in combat, the financial police, and the Coast Guard, we can deploy 
another 125,000 men between police and prison officers, for a total of 
430,000 men, to which would be added the aforementioned 10,000 reservists.

Some Necessary Considerations

Beyond the numerical increase in the armed forces, one wonders what the 
ratio is between the mobilizable population and those already in 
service, and to what extent. The country can support an increase in its 
armed forces in the event of mobilization and whether Italy can recruit 
forces made up of non-citizens. First and foremost, we note that 
military service is reserved for citizens because, as the Constitution 
establishes, it is performed in defense of the Republic, not the State, 
much less the nation. It is assumed that those performing military 
service are part of the Community and wish to defend it. Given this, 
considering that the current resident Italian population is 59,000,000 
(54 million expected in 2050), of which 14.5 million in 2025, equal to 
approximately 24.7% of the total population, are over 65, and that the 
population under 18 is 7.2 million, taking into account that the age 
limit for performing military service is 63, the available range is 
approximately 21.7-22 million men, primarily women.

It follows that the number of men eligible for military service should 
hypothetically be around 10 million, a number that must be excluded from 
the sick, disabled, and those suffering from disabling pathologies, as 
well as those who, despite being residents, emigrated for work or other 
reasons, approximately half a million of whom are already in armed 
conflict. It follows that the number of those who can be mobilized does 
not exceed 5 million, even scraping the bottom of the barrel and 
completely emptying society of men, in the workplace, in factories, 
offices, hospitals, etc., and taking into account conscientious objection.

From these brief and summary considerations, it is clear that the war 
effort the country is capable of undertaking is completely inadequate to 
address the feared dangers, except in the unlikely future context of the 
creation of a European Union army. The primary problem is the 
nationality of who should assume its command, even if limited to the 
dispute between France and Germany, unless one envisions a puppet 
general directed by the usual English, perhaps of Ukrainian nationality. 
That is, it demonstrates how foolish it is for the EU to allow itself to 
be dragged along by its British partner, who, dreaming of empire, still 
thinks of moving pawns on the chessboard of Europe to dominate it. As 
proof of these malevolent British intentions, it is noteworthy that 
despite changes in government, British policy has remained unchanged for 
the last 300 years. It follows that the country's rearmament policy 
would be a gift to others and a disaster for Italy, proving that the 
sure enemies are the so-called friends.
So, what purpose does the deployment of such enormous resources and the 
creation of an armed force of half a million men and women serve? The 
well-founded suspicion inevitably arises that everything that is 
happening is aimed at guaranteeing lavish profits for the war industry 
and, at the same time, creating and maintaining an armed force that 
allows the militarization of the country's life in order to control 
civil society and guide its choices regarding both the war effort and, 
above all, social order, guaranteeing the government of the day control 
over the population.
As for the aspirations of defending against attacks from an external 
enemy, it's enough to consider that a potential conflict could only 
reasonably, but irrationally for the interests of humanity as a whole, 
result in a nuclear war. In this case, the existence of a beloved force 
would be of no use in the face of a probable nuclear holocaust, given 
that Europe has the extremely weak French nuclear deterrent force and 
the unlikely use of British cover, more inclined to limit itself to the 
beloved British Isles.

It goes without saying that the militarization of Europe is a 
contradiction, since, to defend its own economic and cultural interests, 
it should seek a relationship of Eurasian collaboration rather than 
allow its countries to be tributary provinces of the decadent US empire 
or the unrealistic and inconsistent offshoots of a phantom reborn 
British empire.

The Editorial Staff

https://www.ucadi.org/2025/12/23/leva-e-militarizzazione-della-societa/
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