with massive ‘spam’ and 2,000 euros in salary

In the middle of 2025 the postal mail (Correos knows it well) is not usually news. However, in Belgium there are about 150,000 letterswith their corresponding envelopes, addresses and letterheads, which are giving a lot to talk. Logical if you take into account that the one who sends them is the Ministry of Defense and their recipients are thousands of 17-year-old Belgians whom the Government wants to encourage to join the army or, at least, to try a one-year voluntary ‘military’.

In exchange he offers them a net salary of 2,000 euros per month.

What has happened? That in Belgium, 17-year-olds have begun to receive a very special letter this week, an invitation from the Ministry of Defense in which they are encouraged to join the army and try a 12-month voluntary military service. It is not a surprise because the letter is the result of a public agreement adopted months agowhen the House of Representatives agreed to “raise awareness” among the country’s youth via postal mail, but still sent the envelopes has generated expectation.

The person in charge of announcing it (via X) has been the Minister of Defense himself, Theo Franckenof New Flemish Alliancea nationalist and conservative formation. “Yesterday, 149,000 letters were sent. All 17-year-olds in the country are encouraged to join the armed forces in general and to go on voluntary military service for one year in particular. Let’s go!”, the leader tweeted on Saturday along with several photos in which the envelopes are seen stacked on tables, boxes and inside a bucket.

Are more details known? Yes. Some. For example, the recruits selected for this first voluntary ‘military’ will be eligible for a net salary of 2,000 euros monthly. It is also known that, although letters are being sent now, registration will not open until January 2026. Before then, the Ministry will hold online and in-person information sessions in the different provinces of the country.

However, the new military will take a few more months to start. It won’t do it in principle until september. Another interesting fact is that 500 volunteer recruits will be accepted from the outset. between 18 and 25 yearsa figure that should be reached without problems if one takes into account that only a few months ago the Ministry of Defense acknowledged that it expects to receive some 3,500 applications for the first cam.

Do you only want 500 recruits? Yes. And no. That will be the starting point, but the goal is to expand it little by little. After the first batch of 500 volunteers, the idea is that the number of places will be expanded to 1,000 in 2027 and continue to strengthen with a view to reach 7,000. Once the military begins, recruits will participate in a ten-week basic military training phase, which will be followed by another more specific stage. The purpose? That the new soldiers end up accessing the different branches of the army and are in charge of maintenance work. surveillance and support.

What does Belgium want? Strengthen (and rejuvenate) your army. “It is about opening the mind to the military, about telling young people that defense is an option, even an opportunity. The objective is also to make young people aware that the world has changed and that there is a threat that weighs on our country. It is a social project,” explained Francken recently Le Soir. The truth is that to meet its objectives the Government needs to increase the pace of recruitment.

As remember The Countryciting the Belgian press, today Defense enlists about 2,800 soldiers a year. The figure serves to maintain its volume of 24,600 troops (thousands of reservists are added to them), but it seems difficult to allow it to reach the tens of thousands of troops that it wants to add in the medium term. Belgian News Agency points out that in a decade officials intend to expand the Defense workforce to 34,500 soldiers12,800 reservists and 8,500 civilians.

Does context matter? Yes. And quite a bit. Data from the Macrotrends platform show a considerable drop in the number of Belgian military personnel over the last 30 years, a decline especially acute in the early 1990s, just when Belgium decided to abolish compulsory military service.

At that time the geopolitical scenario was marked by the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, today it is marked by the war in Ukraine, the break with Putin’s Russia, the threats of Donald Trump to leave NATO and an increase in military investment. In fact in spring The Belgian Government decided to increase its defense spending to reach NATO’s goal of dedicating 2% of GDP to the sector. Today the alliance is already looking beyond, to a mobilization of 5%.

Is it a unique case? No. And perhaps that is the most revealing. That Belgium has decided to opt for a mandatory military service is part of a more global attempt to strengthen armies in the West. Not long ago there was another nation that moved in a similar direction: Germany. His Government has moved to recover military service, suspended in 2011, with a voluntary recruitment system. The possibility of a “recruitment lottery”.

Neither Belgium nor Germany they are alone. In recent years, especially after the Russian annexation of Crimea, a good number of countries They have strengthened their recruitment systems or (at least) opened the debate on recovering their military: from Lithuania, Latvia and Romania to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway or Denmark. Spain discard recover compulsory service (abolished in 2001), although there are other formats, such as military camps, which are arousing interest.

Is there debate? Yes, the topic raises debate. And Belgium once again provides a good example. There the military has been received with criticismespecially from youth organizations that fear that “the promise of a high salary can exploit the precarious situation of young people and make militaristic discourse socially acceptable for a generation in search of meaning and socioeconomic stability.”

In fact, its opponents have responded to the initiative of the Ministry of Defense with the formation of a platform that they have named ‘Services for Peace’.

Images | 7th Army Training Command (Flickr) and

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