New Year for young men in Croatia brings an old challenge in a new guise. In the first days of 2026, about 1.200 of them will receive letters informing them that they have been called up for military service.
This is the first generation to face conscription since it was abolished in 2008, a year before Croatia entered the NATO. At that time, the idea was to professionalize the armed forces and move away from compulsory military service, writes DW.
Now, especially when you bear in mind that Croatia is physically separated from Ukraine only by Hungary, the prospect of armed conflict seems uncomfortably close. A stray drone, probably Ukrainian, but never officially identified, crashed in 2022 in Zagreb. It didn't cause much damage, but it certainly prompted some serious thinking.
The Croatian government has become uncomfortably aware of the fact that it can count on less than 15.000 active members of the army. Ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections, she proposed reintroducing mandatory military service for young men after high school. Defense Minister Ivan Anušić said that this would help young men to change "bad habits" and prepare for "any major threat". Public opinion surveys have shown broad support for that idea - seven out of ten Croatian citizens support it. After the election, the HDZ is now implementing this policy.
Political support and lack of resistance
The necessary legislation passed the Parliament without difficulty last October, with 84 MPs voting in favor and only 11 against. The Ministry of Defense wasted no time and contacted the first group of recruits. All that happened without major protests - unlike in Germany, where young people protested against the introduction of conscription.
"I don't see any challenges related to recruitment," says Gordan Akrap, vice-rector of the "Franjo Tuđman" University of Defense and Security. "There will be more people who will want to be part of that project than can be accommodated at the moment, because the number is limited," he adds. "Some populist groups from the extreme left they say that we should invest in kindergartens and the like, but the fact is that someone has to protect those kindergartens and our European way of life and democracy - and ultimately this can only be ensured by the army."
Regional trend of recruitment return
The re-introduction of mandatory military service in Croatia is part of a wider trend in countries that were once part of Yugoslavia. A few are considering a return to some form of conscription.
In the old days Yugoslavia young men had to serve in the Yugoslav People's Army for a year, which created a considerable fighting force. Just before the country's breakup began in the 1990s, two-thirds of the ground forces were conscripts – with an additional million reservists.
The independent states that emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia gradually abolished compulsory military service. Slovenia was the first to abolish conscription in 2003, while the last recruits in Serbia finished their service in 2010. With the promise – or in the case of Slovenia and Croatia, the realization – of membership in the European Union, there seemed to be little need for the kind of army that includes months of military training for young people.
But even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mood began to change. The parties that formed the new right-wing nationalist government in 2020 Slovenia they included the reintroduction of military service in their coalition agreement. The then Prime Minister Janez Janša distinguished himself as the Minister of Defense during the ten-day war for the independence of Slovenia in 1991.
He claimed that the country’s armed forces – with only 7.000 members – were no longer capable of defending the country from attack and complained that young people did not know how to handle weapons. The current government has not accepted the idea, but parliamentary elections are scheduled for March, and Janša’s party, the SDS, is leading in the polls.
In Serbia, the government has been talking about the possibility of introducing conscription for years. Several deadlines have passed without inviting recruits, but that could change this year, as Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić claims that the legislative proposal will soon be sent to parliament.
Stability of the Balkans and a look into the future
As countries in the region increase military spending and seek to increase the number of military personnel, an old question is being asked again: should the rest of Europe be worried about the Balkans. But Toby Fogel of the Berlin-based think tank the Council for Democratization Policy thinks the potential for actual conflict remains low. "The military aspect of all this primarily refers to readiness - to concrete planning, and certainly not to offensive planning," he says. "Serbia is not preparing to attack Croatia, nor is Croatia preparing to attack Serbia," he added.
"In a situation where the general environment is characterized by instability and unpredictability, I think governments are probably prudent to take certain precautions and lay the groundwork for a more strategic approach to international relations. But that is a return to the old days."
The new Croatian recruits will soon discover how much their experience will resemble the stories they heard from their fathers and grandfathers. Some might also feel relieved when they find out that their commitment is shorter - it only lasts two months.
