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ARMY

Call for longer military service to cope with refugees

Austria’s new defence minister Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ) has said that he wants to extend the length of basic military service to help the army cope with the influx of refugees and migrants.

Call for longer military service to cope with refugees
Soldiers put up tents for refugees. File photo: ORF

He told Austrian state broadcaster ORF that it was a necessary step in order to guarantee the “sustainability” of the army. He added that resources would become stretched if troops are required to patrol Austria’s ‘green border’ crossings that don’t have check points.

Military service was shortened from eight to six months in 2006. Doskozil did not say how long he thought military service should be extended by but said that if there was general agreement within the army “that it would make sense, then we will implement it”.

Last year the army’s Chief of Staff Othmar Commenda said an extension of military service would be a “worst case scenario”, and former defence minister Gerald Klug said that he did not think it was necessary.

Doskozil was appointed defence minister earlier this month. He was formerly Burgenland's police director and rose to prominence during the refugee crisis last year.

All Austrian men aged 18 to 50 must complete compulsory basic recruit training for six months. If a man objects for conscientious reasons he must complete nine months of civil service.

Around 22,000 men are drafted into military service each year.

FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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