After a “chaotic beginning”, the results of the universal national service (SNU) experiment are “mixed”, estimates the environmentalist MP Jean-Claude Raux in a parliamentary report. This universal national service desired by Emmanuel Macron for youth has had “chaotic beginnings” and several “format changes”, estimates this elected official from Loire-Atlantique, in a report backed by the 2024 draft budget and consulted by AFP.
“Of course, it is normal for a large-scale project to evolve, but the profound transformations that the SNU has undergone highlight more a lack of direction than a progressive adjustment, which is also demonstrated by the procrastination with regard to the generalization of the system”, criticizes Jean-Claude Raux, opposition deputy.
Macron’s promise in 2017
A promise of Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 presidential campaign, the SNU was launched in 2019. It includes a “cohesion stay” and a “general interest mission”. For the moment it only concerns young volunteers, and its generalization faces strong resistance. In June, the government announced that the SNU would be integrated into school time from March 2024, with a 12-day internship for second-year students who would volunteer.
“Despite the laborious nature of the implementation of the SNU, cohesion stays can boast of certain successes”, qualifies the report of MP Raux, with “a high satisfaction rate among the participants”, particularly for the “activities physical and sporting”. But the participants are “voluntary” and the “small cohorts”, therefore “unrepresentative”, he considers.
A cost of at least two billion per year
“In particular, in 2021, 10% of young people declared having a parent working in the army, the police or the gendarmerie or the firefighters and 37% having a parent who had worked in these bodies in the past. This proportion is much higher than what we observe in the general population,” notes the elected environmentalist.
Jean-Claude Raux is opposed to the “generalization” of the SNU, an “unreasonable financial burden”, which “cannot be less than 2 billion euros in a full year”, he indicates. The MP considers that the “available buildings risk being insufficient” as does the number of supervisors. Above all, he denounces the “paradox of a compulsory commitment”, which “risks undermining the system”.