Military service is all too passé

“Away with military service!": Profil is joining the call for the reform of the army set out on 17 January by the Social Democrats (SPÖ). Following on the recent scrapping of military service next door in Germany, Austria’s SPÖ indeed wants to replace conscription with a form of national guard of 10,000 men expected to respond to disasters and with a professional army of 22,000 soldiers. For the Viennese weekly, military service is outdated. Firstly, because it persists only in three EU countries – Finland, Greece and Cyprus. Secondly, because the new threats of terrorism and cyber warfare make it "absurd to recruit 26,000 young people every year." It’s difficult to say yet whether the reform will be adopted. Evoking the civil war of 1934 and the cost of a professional army (almost double), the Conservatives, who share power with the SPÖ, oppose the idea.