Austria announces referendum on military service

(Patria) - Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker has announced the possibility of holding a referendum to decide on the future form of compulsory military service in Austria.

- The decision would be on compulsory military service and, of course, the decision in the referendum would be legally binding - Stocker said at the New Year's meeting of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).

Stocker's coalition partners - the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the liberal NEOS are surprised by his proposal.

The Social Democrats pointed to "internal discussions" within the Government on this topic.

"Does a federal referendum on this topic make sense, we first need to analyze that within the cabinet," the SPÖ stated.

NEOS pointed out that it was planned for the results of the expert analysis to be discussed at the parliamentary level.

An expert commission recently, on the government's initiative, prepared a study proposing the extension of military service from the current six to eight months, with an additional two months of reserve training.

In Austria, which is not a member of NATO, its military readiness in case of an attack has been discussed recently, and public discourse mainly points to the shortcomings of the armed forces.

In Austria, compulsory military service is in effect for all men, and military service lasts six months. So-called civilian service lasts nine months.