The issue of compulsory military service for women: Debates in the Danish parliament, and the Minister of Defense escalates the rhetoric.

After the government proposed last week its plan for mandatory conscription with complete equality between the sexes, serious opposition emerged from both the Denmark Democrats and the Liberal Alliance, who already have a chance to block the government's proposal. For its part, the government, through Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, threatened to end the defense compromise if the two parties prevent the conscription of women. The Defense Minister also escalated the rhetoric in the highly charged debate over the conscription of women.

This means that if the Danish Democrats and the Liberal Alliance intend to ban compulsory military service for women, the entire 155 billion Danish kroner defense settlement is at risk of being thrown in the trash, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Tuesday: “It is absolutely a priority for me to create a compulsory military service model that incorporates all three elements of the government’s proposal.”.

The three elements refer to the changes proposed by the government regarding compulsory military service, which implicitly mean increasing the duration of service to 11 months instead of months, that there will be an increase in the use of conscripts in operational tasks, and that there will be complete gender equality. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen confirmed that this is a very crucial priority for the government, and explained that there is a clear link between the desire for a stronger defense with a much larger number of soldiers and the proposed extension of compulsory military service.

Discussions about compulsory military service are expected to continue after the Easter holiday.

Unclear answer from Denmark Democrats leader Inger Støjberg

At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Danish Democratic Party leader Inger Støjberg faced a threat from Troils Lund Poulsen. When asked by the media whether she was prepared to risk derailing the entire defense settlement because of her opposition to female conscription, she replied: “We have always said that we do not support female conscription. I pointed out last week that the government held a press conference in which it said that there would be compulsory conscription for women. I assume that negotiations will be called at some point.”.

“I think Troils Lund Poulsen woke up early today.”

TV2 also asked the Liberal Alliance's defense spokesperson, Carsten Bach, whether the party would prevent the government from implementing compulsory military service for women. He stated, "We are firm on our policy, and when another party is also firm, that won't happen. It's up to the minister what the consequences will be." When asked about Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen's statement that the outcome could be the end of the compromise, he replied, "Now I think we should take things easy. I think Troels Lund Poulsen woke up early today. I consider it a proposal for negotiation from the government, and we are prepared to offer more equality. We will negotiate on that basis.".