PCP is against compulsory military service, which will become “cannon fodder”

The PKP secretary-general on Tuesday spoke out against compulsory military service, saying it would serve as “cannon fodder” in the current context of the arms race, and said women’s careers must be valued. strength.

Speaking to reporters after visiting photographer Eduardo Gageiro’s exhibition “Factum” in Lisbon, Paulo Raimundo noted that the defense of the return of compulsory military service is being carried out “within the framework of emphasizing ballistic discourse, weapons and war.” “.

For the leader of the PKP, “this arms race was enough” to now want to thicken it with “cannon fodder.”

“This conversation is about the escalation of the war, and we don’t need war, we need peace, we don’t need weapons, we need a way to end the arms race, and we don’t need fodder for the guns, we need to value professionals today, give salaries and careers to current military,” he said.

Thus, Paulo Raimundo spoke out against compulsory military service, emphasizing that we are not talking about service in the form in which it existed before its end in 2004.

“We are talking about compulsory military service as a response to a need that someone wants for a war that someone other than us is not defending. And that would be a disaster, as we can count,” he stressed.

This Friday, in an article in Expresso, the Chief of Naval Staff, Enrique Gouveia e Melo, said that it may be necessary to “rethink compulsory military service or another more suitable option” in order to “balance the costs.” ratio of results” and “ensure greater availability of the population for defense.”

This position was shared by Army Chief of Staff Eduardo Ferran, who, in a statement to Expresso, argued that “the resumption of compulsory military service is justified and requires study and evaluation from various points of view.”

At the same time, in response to Lusa, the General Staff of the Armed Forces conveyed the decision on the possible return of compulsory military service to the government, but emphasized that this hypothesis would not allow “to solve the problems of personnel management in a timely manner.”

Compulsory military service ended in 2004. Its end was approved in 1999 by the executive led by socialist Antonio Guterres, establishing a transition period of four years.

The transition to professionalization was completed in September 2004, two months before the planned date of 19 November, when the centrist Paulo Portas became defense minister.