Spain’s Politicians Vow to Abolish ‘Mili’ Service

Every year nearly a quarter of a million young Spanish men abandon their families, jobs and homes for 12 months of obligatory military service on a wage of $8 a month.

Popularly called the “mili,” it is the lot of most young men in Western Europe, except in Britain, Ireland and Luxembourg. In Eastern Europe it can last up to three years.

In Spain, however, with elections Sunday, politicians have made the “mili” a campaign issue, courting voters with promises to reduce or abolish it amid debate about its effect on the efficiency and political neutrality of the armed forces.

With new promises launched every week, young Spaniards have started making jokes about the issue. “What’s the ‘mili’ level today,” they ask, treating it like a fluctuating exchange rate.

The ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party has offered a reduction of three months. It was outbid by a four-month cut proposed by the conservative Popular Party. The centrist Democratic and Social Center beat both with a promise to cut the “mili” by nine months and eventually abolish it.

The United Left coalition wants a reduction followed by a referendum on abolition. “There are too many soldiers in Spain,” a spokesman said.

A recent opinion poll said 62.5% of voters thought the “mili” was too long while more than half thought the armed forces should be manned exclusively by professionals and volunteers.

Since the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, and even more so since an attempted coup in 1981, there has been a drive to shrink, modernize and depoliticize the military.

Aging senior officers have been pensioned off while any officer making political statements risks arrest.

One officer was recently sentenced to 14 days of house arrest for imparting to the press his views on the army -- the least modern of the forces and the destination of most conscripts.

“At the moment the Spanish army is useless,” Col. Amadeo Martinez Ingles told Cambio 16 magazine. Conscripts “are not motivated because they are obliged to be there. From the rank of colonel downward, everyone agrees we must work toward a professional army.”

Ingles, who wants the army cut to 80,000 men, said the government intentionally kept the armed forces ineffective to avoid a repeat of the 1981 attempted coup, when civil guards stormed parliament at the instigation of army generals.

“The political powers are afraid of an operational and efficient army,” he said.

A Defense Ministry official denied the allegation. “There is no fear at all,” he said. “The army is perfectly conscious of its role serving democracy.”

A NATO diplomat agreed that fears of a coup had vanished.

“I have been struck by how remote an issue it has become,” he said. The diplomat said it was unlikely a fully professional army would pose more of a threat.

“Experiences in Latin America show you don’t need a sophisticated army to intervene in politics,” he said.

“A more sophisticated army is less likely to be political, they’d be too busy training.”

But a smaller, fully professional military would be more costly than a conscript army, he added.

The Ministry official said the “mili,” enshrined in the Constitution decreeing “every Spaniard has the right and duty to defend Spain,” helped democracy by ensuring Spaniards from all social classes were integrated in the military’s ranks.

Opposition to obligatory military service came from a false sense of security, he said.

“People see no immediate threat and think defense is not necessary.”

One group of opponents of the “mili,” Defensor del Soldado (Defender of the Soldier), said a lack of basic rights for all military personnel caused a high incidence of suicides while bad training and poor equipment caused fatal accidents.

Official figures showed that of some 160 deaths in 1988 in the armed forces, 24 were suicides and 30 were accidents of a military nature.

One 21-year-old law student said he was trying to escape the “mili” on medical grounds.

“It’s a whole year and now that I’m studying, with possibilities of going out into the job market, it’s a horrific waste of time,” he said.

“Other young people I know object to it for deeper ethical reasons,” he added.

“They say that with all this talk about peace and disarmament, why can’t we just have a small army?

“If the party I was going to vote for kept the ‘mili’ the same length,” he said, “then I would think twice about voting them.”