In Denmark more and more people are getting ready as volunteers for civil defense. Just in case

The Danish National Guard, better known as Hjemmeværnet or for its HJV initials, it already has Eight decades of history behind him, but he had rarely lived a April more moved than that of 2025. Throughout the last month almost 800 Danish They showed interest in joining the ranks of this body of volunteers created to “Respond to emergencies” and support the country’s defense. You have to go back to the 80sin full cold war and tensions with the USSR, to find a spring start with better recruitment data.

The increase in interest in the HJV comes at a very special moment at the geopolitical level: after three years of War in Ukrainea Emboldened Russia and with Trump sowing doubts on the future of the US in NATO and showing their interest in Annex Greenlandnow under Danish sovereignty.

A fact: 1,732 inscriptions. In a convulsive geopolitical scenario and with Copenhagen pending what happens in kyiv, Moscow and Washington, more and more Danes They show interest in The HJVa body formed by trained volunteers to act in emergency cases and support the country’s army.

The data are revealing. During the first quarter of the year 1,732 Danes They filled and confirmed the form to register in the National Guard. During the same 2024 period they did 1,041 And in 2023 there were 663. In just two years the growth, at least during those months, was 161%. And interest does not seem to be referring, like They recognize From HJV itself: last month 764 people confirmed their desire to enlist. You have to go back to the 80s to find an April in which the Hjemmeværnet aroused so much interest.

“Have you valued to join?” With this backdrop data, Voxmeter recently conducted a survey for the Danish news agency Ritzau that throws another striking figure. Its technicians interviewed 1,018 people to those who asked the same question: “Have you considered joining the National Guard?” The majority (85.8%) replied that no, but 9.5% gave an affirmative response and 4.5% acknowledged that “he does not know,” which means that he does not rule it out either.

The figure is relevant due to its reach (the tenth values ​​to swell the ranks of the organization), but also for what it tells us about the image of the HJV.

Bent Åge Andersen, a National Guard veteran, Recognize to the newspaper BERLINGSKE that the Danes no longer look with the same eyes to the volunteers. “Before it was usual for people to smile when we exercised and we arrived uniformed and with weapons. We called the weekend soldiers. It was a joke for years. But today there is a totally different attitude.”

What exactly do they do? In Your official page HJV is presented as “a voluntary emergency response military organization that supports the Danish defense.” With that purpose its members, who include civilians who work in companies that have nothing to do with weapons, carry out military training. eldiario.es I spoke recently With one of the new volunteers, Anne Kaae, a 38 -year -old woman without prior military experience. If you have decided to take the step, he explains, it is for “the concern” that generates “what happens in the world.”

“A wide range of tasks”. In an article published this weekend, the newspaper Describe A training on the outskirts of Copenhagen with 40 men and women who when the HJV uniforms are taken are normal civilians. There is some war veteran, but most study or work in trades that have nothing to do with weapons. Thanks to the military training they receive, the National Guard has participated in Surveillance worksearches for missing or preparation against extreme weathering phenomena. Especially on Danish soil.

“We solve a wide range of tasks for the armed forces, the global emergency response and civil society,” The HJV emphasizeswhich recalls that, to a lesser extent, its volunteers also offer support in international missions outside Denmark. In March the Ministry of Defense claimed that the number of active volunteers exceeds 14,000. The registration flow has been so high that Recognize that the new ones can find “an extra waiting time.”

Matters how much … and does when. The increase in HJV enlistments is important, but so is the geopolitical context in which it comes, mainly marked by three major scenarios: Ukraine, Russia and the US. To the three years of war in Ukraine, from January 20, Trump’s return to the White House, his approach to Moscow, the distancing with the EU and its Declarations about NATOthat have sown doubts about what degree of involvement Washington will have from now on in the Atlantic Alliance.

If the scenario were not complex enough in itself, in the case of Denmark another extra factor is added that has further tensioned the relationship with Washington: Greenland. Trump ha OpenamentAnd his desire for the US to control the Arctic Island, now administratively linked to Copenhagen, and has even suggested that it could resort to force to achieve its goal. “I do not say that I will do it, but I do not rule out anything. We need Greenland with urgency. We need it for international security,” argued The American leader a few days ago during an interview at the NBC News.

“A dangerous situation”. Beyond the HJV, Denmark has decided to redouble his commitment to the defensal. In February the government headed by Mette Frederiksen announced its plans to mobilize 6,700 million euros in two years for a Urgent reinforcement of his defense. The objective: achieve 3.2% of GDP.

“We are in the most dangerous situation in many, many years. Therefore, because of the Russian threat, to defend Denmark and avoid war, we promote a new reinforcement,” summed up the Danish Prime Minister, who made at the beginning of the month A visit to the National Guard. Copenhagen’s redoubled military effort also contemplates dedicating 53.6 million euros to HJV equipment.

Denmark is not the only one that is increasing its commitment to military spending. The EU estimates that between 2021 and 2024 the expense in defense of the Member States He shot 30% And he hopes that the investment will continue to grow over the next few years, for which Brussels has already drawn a Milmillonario “Rearme” Plan. At the same time there is a figure that regains international importance after having been anatema for years: the conscription.

Images | Hjemmeværnet 1, 2 and 3

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