Army recruitment inquiries in France triple since attacks
BRUSSELS — France’s army recruitment spokesman says the number of people wanting to join up has tripled since the Paris attacks.
French President Francois Hollande, followed by, from top left, French army general Bruno Le Ray, military governor of Paris, French President Hollande's Military Chief of Staff General Benoit Puga, French Army Chief of Staff, General Pierre de Villiers, French Junior Minister for Veterans and Remembrance, Jean-Marc Todeschini, and French defense minister Jean Yves Le Drian, attend a Military ceremony at the Military Hotel National des Invalides, in Paris on Nov 19, 2015. Photo: AP
BRUSSELS — France’s army recruitment spokesman says the number of people wanting to join up has tripled since the Paris attacks.
Colonel Eric de Lapresle told Le Monde newspaper that the number of people inquiring through the army website has gone from 500 to 1,500 a day since the Nov 13 carnage that killed 129 people.
He says it’s a “totally new phenomenon”.
He says applications had already gone up from about 150 a day after attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in Paris in January.
The French army currently has almost 112,000 troops and 8,400 civilian employees.
After last week’s attacks, President Francois Hollande froze plans to cut more than 9,000 troops by 2019. AP
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