STOCKHOLM | In Sweden it is not uncommon to see the military in schools, not for security reasons but to educate children about threats to their country and what they can do to defend it when they grow up.
“Last week I met a soldier in uniform at school in the hallway. He came to meet the 16-year-old students to prepare them,” says Loukas Christodoulou, a teacher in the Swedish capital.
From 16 years
All Swedes between the ages of 16 and 70 are required to participate in Total Defence, a doctrine that calls on all citizens to serve their country in one way or another in times of crisis.
Mr Christodoulou, for example, is a National Guard War Chef. In the event of a crisis, he has to organize mobile kitchens and prepare meals for soldiers and first responders.
The first contact with the defense for his students is the draft.
Anne Caroline Desplanques / JdeM
Young conscripts in the Swedish Armed Forces learn how to use the Patriot missile defense system during their military service in Stockholm.
Abolished in 2010, it was reintroduced in 2017. In the first year, 4,000 18-year-old boys and girls were drafted, about 4% of the youth born in 1999. 13,000 are now convened annually, but only those who have passed the admission period for the exams is nine to twelve months.
Enthusiastic youth
And far from going there reluctantly, young people apply spontaneously, to the point that the army has had to turn them down for lack of infrastructure to look after them.
Adela Olsson, 19, says she jumped for joy when she received her summons: “I was very excited when I received it, I was looking forward to it,” she said.
Anne Caroline Desplanques / JdeM
On a young girl with an angelic face framed by long blonde braids, this might come as a surprise. But Mr Christodoulou explains that in Sweden “it’s normal to grow up with the army”.
“Whether left or right, we are convinced that the army is all of us, it belongs to the people,” he said.
*This report was produced thanks to a grant from the Fonds Québécois en journalistisme international.