Mandatory military conscription. Jarosław Kaczyński took a stand and announced the conditions
On Wednesday, the head of the National Security Bureau, Sławomir Cenckiewicz, said on RMF FM that “we must suspend compulsory military service” and “start talking about threats directly, also by preparing society for these threats.” On Thursday, President Karol Nawrocki said that currently there is no problem with people willing to join the Polish Army, and the currently functioning voluntary conscript service and the Territorial Defense Army “fulfill these responsibilities.”
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Jarosław Kaczyński, when asked about this matter during Friday's press conference, emphasized that If there is a need to “suspend” compulsory military service, the Polish army must be prepared for it. He added that recruits must be properly equipped and professionally trained. In his opinion, the military is not ready at this pointto “introduce compulsory military service overnight, if this is not to be fiction.”
Read also: The army is preparing drafts. The Ministry of National Defense issued a regulation
— But if this situation, which some describe – although exaggeratedly in my opinion – as a situation of impending war, continues, if peace is not concluded in Ukraine and certain security guarantees will not be created, then we certainly can't avoid it – he emphasized. The PiS president added that this situation is “particularly unpleasant for the young generation of men.”
“The army lacks funds”
The chairman of the PiS club, former head of the Ministry of National Defense, Mariusz Błaszczak, who was present at the conference, noted that the army lacks funds to create jobs for professional soldiers. As he added, people who report for service are not accepted into military units. In his opinion, Poland lacks infrastructure and military training instructors. He emphasized that it is necessary to build strong military institutions so that later we can start “suspending” the draft.
Compulsory military service has been suspended since January 2010 as part of the program of transition to a professional army. Therefore, in 2009, military qualification replaced compulsory conscription, and its aim is to collect information about the physical and mental health of young people in terms of their predispositions to serve in the army.
