ROME, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The head of Italy's largest political party said he wants to reintroduce some form of mandatory military service for Italian youths. But some analysts said the armed forces don't need the extra manpower.
Before Italy suspended obligatory military service in 2005, every able-bodied Italian boy was required to serve in some branch of the military for at least 12 months.
Matteo Salvini -- head of the nationalist and anti-migrant League party and Italy's deputy prime minister and minister of the interior -- wants to revive the program.
"Starting in September ... we will have to reintroduce mandatory military service," Salvini said this week at a rally in the northern town of Pinzolo. He said a stronger army "is better for democracy."
Supporters of the 46-year-old Milan native, meanwhile, argue the plan would instill discipline and civic pride in a new generation of Italians.
Salvini, who performed his compulsory military service in the early 1990s, has mentioned the idea in the past, but this is the first time he spoke about it in specific terms.
One poll conducted by the survey company Opinioni showed that around a third of Italians are at least open to the idea. But it has so far earned very limited support among analysts and political leaders.
Italian Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta called the idea "well-intentioned but not feasible," and saying Italy "had to look to the future and not the past."
Leaders of other political parties used harsher terms, though the opposition center-left Democratic Party said it was open to proposing some kind "European public service" plan for young people in all European Union members.
Italy voted to phase out obligatory military service in 2000, and the last call-up service started in 2004.
Since then, according to Luca Comellini, general secretary of the military labor union, the idea is too expensive and outdated to have much value.
Comellini told Xinhua. "There are not enough military barracks for a large number of new soldiers, not enough equipment for them to use. And a year of service isn't enough time for them to become adept with high-tech systems the military uses."
Comellini went on: "The biggest reason, though, is that the military doesn't need tens of thousands of new soldiers," he said. "A modern, professional army is nimble and efficient."
According to Claudio Vercelli, a contemporary history researcher at the Gaetano Salvemini institute of historical studies, the costs of such a program would be far higher than whatever benefits it might produce.
"Without knowing the exact number of people who would be conscripted or what their role would be, it's impossible to estimate the exact costs, but I think we are talking about something on the order of tens of billions of euros," Vercelli said in an interview. "It's not an amount of money the government should look to spend for a flawed idea."
