According to a digital consultation that relies mainly on social networks (totaling some 30,000 responses), a small majority of young people surveyed is in favor of the SNU (51%). Only 27% do not want to do it at all.
Young people still consider "fuzzy" the contours of the future universal national service (SNU), which can maintain some doubt about its usefulness, underline the conclusions of a report delivered Monday with the Elysée, which insists on the need for pedagogy .
This report of the working group led by General Daniel Menaouine, resumes the conclusions of various consultations conducted with the youth, until the end of October. These consultations should make it possible to precisely define the content and the modalities of the mandatory phase of the UNS, a promise made by President Macron.
Presented Monday to Gabriel Attal, Secretary of State to the Minister of Education, in charge of the file, and Alexis Kohler, Secretary General of the Elysee, the report delivers several lessons.
A quarter of young people do not want to do it at all
According to another consultation conducted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces during the Defense and Citizenship Days, 75% of the young people surveyed (nearly 46,000) were in favor of the objectives of the UNS and only 25.3% said they did not at all want to do it.
The report recognizes that "the compulsory nature and the duration are the main obstacles expressed by young people" . Its principle and its modalities are "still very little known to French citizens" , especially among the youngest: which maintains "the feeling of uselessness" .
To meet "different" young people, an idea that seduces
Other results seem encouraging: "as the project is exposed to them, the membership of the people we met in the SNU is built and strengthened mainly around the stage of cohesion in collective accommodation" , notes the report .
"The aim of social, geographical and cultural mixing" provokes "great support" : 90% believe that it would allow "to meet young people from different regions and social backgrounds" .
The "retrograde" aspect and the cost of the project: the two dangers
The authors recommend pedagogical work with a focus on "the openness of national service" , which may appear to be "retrograde" . They also advocate a "necessary vigilance" on the budget cost of the project, "necessarily high" .
The SNU could experience a first cohort of a few hundred young people as of next June, with only volunteers for this "pilot phase , " said Gabriel Attal Monday in Paris.