Serbia introduces 75-day compulsory military service for men

September 14 () –

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Saturday that he has approved a law that establishes a 75-day mandatory military service for men.

Military service will be compulsory for men, while women will be able to do it on a voluntary basis, Serbian public television RTC reports.

“I want to believe that you all know how much we need a strong army, that we will have to buy weapons. We do not want to attack anyone. We are not going to do that. What we want is to deter all those who threaten us on a daily basis,” Vucic explained during an officers’ graduation ceremony.

Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic also stressed the importance of introducing military service to “declare Kosovo and Metohija as special protection zones,” referring to the Serbian province that unilaterally declared its independence with NATO support.

Vucevic said the first replacements will take place in the middle of next year and will include civilians who have completed their studies in electricity, mechanics and other similar subjects in order to enter the Military Technical Institute.

“We need young men who can lead and fly drones, so that we have a classic military service, but there will also be young people with a certain profile who have finished their studies and who can help the country with their knowledge in special units of the Serbian Armed Forces,” he said.

The Vucevic government still needs to approve the initiative, although it will be a mere formality due to the close collaboration it maintains with Vucic. The initiative is far from the four months of “military service” that the military leadership requested at the beginning of the year, but Vucic has reduced the period to avoid encouraging the already significant emigration of young people.