Patriotic Front Calls for Restoring Compulsory Military Service in Bulgaria

The parliamentary group of the Patriotic Front (PF), which supports the coalition government, has tabled two bills for reinstating compulsory military service in Bulgaria.

This was announced on Thursday by the co-chairpersons of PF, Krasimir Karakachanov and Valeri Simeonov, dnevnik.bg informs.

One of their motives for restoring military service is that the army has to be reinforced to meet the new requirements.

One of the bills concerns the armed forces, while the other addresses the military reserve force.

The bills foresee the compulsory military service to last six months for young men who had turned 19.

The military service will be one year for those who due to religious considerations can not bear arms or are illiterate.

PF proposes women also to be able to serve in the military, but on a volunteer principle.

Karakachanov estimates that BGN 400 will be spent monthly on a military conscript, while the present monthly allocation for professional soldier is BGN 1200.

According to him, it has been proven that the training of a serviceman should last four months at minimum.

Simeonov estimated that there would be 15 000 conscripts annually, which would cost the state less than BGN 100 M.

He reminded that the restoration of military conscription and the construction of the fence along the border with Turkey had been electoral promises of PF.

In the past months, the main ruling party GERB has on several occasions expressed opposition to the restoration of military service.

However Simeonov is convinced that GERB would eventually concede to the demand of PF.

PF also proposes initial military training to become compulsory in schools.

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