The Chief of Staff of the Navy today rejected old models of compulsory military service, which were in force until 2004, and defended a “new response” agreed between the political powers and society to mobilize the population in extreme situations.
“The old model [of compulsory military service] is just that, the old model. A new answer has to be found. This isn’t something that can be found tomorrow, it has to be discussed, it has to be an answer that the political power accepts, that the population accepts, because only all of us together can give an answer that is an answer for the country itself,” said Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, speaking to journalists at the Lisbon Naval Base in Almada.
The admiral defended his attempt to “warn of an imminent danger” in the opinion article he published in the weekly Expresso on March 28.
“We all know, and I think it’s public, that there’s a shortage of personnel in the Armed Forces and we have to try to solve it, not with compulsory conscription as has been said. But that is a problem. Then there’s another problem, which is the ability to quickly mobilize the population to defend ourselves in case of extreme need,” he said.
In the opinion of the military chief of the Armada, “the political power and the military, in due course, will discuss the best way to do this”.
“But there will certainly be formulas, other countries are already testing new formulas, so it’s a question of time, intelligence and the will, essentially the will, to solve a problem that is on our doorstep,” he stressed.
Asked if he had any regrets about raising the issue of compulsory military service, Gouveia e Melo replied: “As a military man, I have no regrets about talking about issues that involve the country’s defense, Europe, and two essential pillars: NATO, which is our sovereignty, and the European Union, which is our prosperity. And that’s all at stake today.
“In the past, if you asked me if I agreed with the SMO when our actions were more expeditionary and there wasn’t a war in Europe and a conventional war, which is a very violent aggression, I would say no. So we have to adapt to reality and the reality is that there is aggression in Europe that could affect our way of being today,” he added. So we have to adapt to reality and the reality is that there is an aggression in Europe that could jeopardize our way of being as we conceive it today,” he added.
On Friday, in an article in Expresso, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, said that it may be necessary to “rethink compulsory military service, or another more appropriate variant”, in order to “balance the expense/results ratio” and “generate greater availability of the population for Defense”.
This position was also shared by the Chief of Staff of the Army, Eduardo Ferrão, who, speaking to Expresso, argued that “a reintroduction of compulsory military service is worth studying and evaluating from various perspectives”.
Compulsory military service ended in 2004. Its end was approved in 1999 by an executive led by socialist António Guterres, with a four-year transition period established.
The transition to professionalization was completed in September 2004, two months before the scheduled date of November 19, with centrist Paulo Portas as Minister of Defense.
Return of compulsory military service doesn’t solve specific manpower management challenges
