Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday that the introduction of certain modules of compulsory military service, which has been discussed in the public lately, was not someone's whim but responsible behaviour due to the changed security environment.

“Let’s open our eyes and raise our heads, let’s get out of our backyard, let’s look at what kind of world we see around Croatia,” Plenkovic said after a session of the HDZ party leadership, in response to a journalist’s question about the reintroduction of conscription.

Citing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Hamas’s attack on Israel, tensions in Kosovo, threats due to illegal migrations, a series of terrorist attacks in Europe over the past 15 years, he said that one word comes into focus and that word is “security”.

Military service, he said, has been suspended for more than 15 years and generations of young people know nothing about certain skills in such a changed security environment.

‘We have to be responsible’

“This topic did not come up because it is someone’s whim, but we are looking at what is happening around us and what other responsible governments are doing, and we must be responsible and not sleep and pretend that everything is great around us, while there are as many crisis hotspots around us as you will,” Plenkovic said.

He explained that this was not an introduction of compulsory military service as it used to be, that Defence Minister Ivan Anusic together with the General Staff of the Armed Forces would offer several models, after which a discussion would be held in which President Zoran Milanovic would also participate.

The number of young people in the army is decreasing, the current situation considering the challenges is not ideal, Plenkovic added, noting that there would be no need to change the Constitution because not everyone would register a conscientious objection, there would be people who would want to do it.