Swiss voters will decide on June 14 whether to tighten access to civilian service, after parliament moved to make it harder for military-age men to switch out of army service on conscience grounds. The reform is meant to cut annual admissions to civilian service by more than 40 percent, from about 7,200 to 4,000, and comes amid pressure to maintain army numbers after Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The package would impose a minimum of 150 civilian-service days, add annual refresher-style obligations, extend the 1.5-times-longer service rule to officers and NCOs, block transfers by people with no military days left, and bar some medical, dental, and veterinary placements. Opponents, organized under “Save Civilian Service,” argue the reform would weaken socially useful work without truly strengthening the army, especially since Switzerland’s armed forces already exceed the legal 140,000-person ceiling by about 5 percent.

Read the entire piece in Eurasia Review.