Croatia restores military service after 17 years - Around 1,200 young men have received their draft papers for two months of recruitment
The new year brings with it an old challenge in a new form for young people in Croatia. In the first days of 2026, about 1,200 of them received letters informing them that they had been called up for two months of military service. They are the first generation to face compulsory military service since it was abolished in 2008, a year before Croatia joined NATO.
At the time, the idea was to professionalize the armed forces and abandon compulsory national service. Now, with only Hungary separating Croatia from Ukraine, the prospect of armed conflict seems all too imminent.
The Croatian government realized that it could only rely on fewer than 15,000 active military personnel. Ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, it proposed reinstating compulsory military service for male school dropouts.
Polls showed broad support for the idea, with seven out of ten Croats in favor. Voters re-elected the HDZ party, which has now implemented the policy. The necessary legislation was quickly passed in Parliament last October, with 84 MPs in favor and only 11 against.
The Ministry of Defense wasted no time in contacting the first group of recruits, with little or no protest.
Slovenia is also discussing the reinstatement of compulsory military service. In 2020, the parties that formed Slovenia's new right-wing nationalist government included the reinstatement of military service in their coalition agreement. Its prime minister, Janez Jansa, rose to fame as defense minister during Slovenia's ten-day war of independence in 1991.
He declared that the country's armed forces, with only 7,000 troops, could no longer defend the country from an attack and complained that young people did not know how to use weapons.
In Serbia, the government has been discussing the possibility of introducing compulsory military service for several years. Several deadlines have passed without anyone being drafted, but that could change this year, as the defense minister says legislation will soon be presented to parliament.
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