French minister proposes community service

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy proposed six-month obligatory community service for French 18 to 30-year-olds today as he accelerated his presidential bid at a key party conference.

The proposal from the conservative leader, which is similar to calls by opposition Socialists and the centrist UDF party, comes amid nationwide debate on the 10th anniversary of the end of France’s obligatory military service.

“There is no nation without obligations of individuals” to the nation as a whole, Sarkozy told an end-of-summer conference of the ruling UMP party focused on youth. He said the service could encourage “shared morals and social ties”.

The community service could be carried out in one or more installments, full-time or part-time, as long as it was serving “national interests,” Sarkozy said. The service could be for state agencies or local organisations that receive public funding, he added.

An equal opportunity law passed this spring – prompted largely by riots by impoverished youth of mainly immigrant background that shook French suburbs last fall – includes a voluntary community service for 16 to 25-year-olds that could offer professional training to youth with limited education. The government has said it hopes the service will attract 30,000 over all of 2006 and 50,000 people next year.

Sarkozy also blamed France’s 1968 student uprisings for instilling a sense of entitlement in young people that he said led to complacency and stagnation.