"I want to push my limits beyond all boundaries", "I’m thirsty for adventure – for those who crave freedom"... The army has a very good communications department and its messages are powerful.
Every year, to encourage young people to enlist, the various branches of the French armed forces are promoted, whether on television, on the radio, online or in towns and cities through outdoor advertising. For Maître Élodie Maumont, a lawyer specialising in military law, the adverts produced for the army, "sell a little bit of a dream" and would not reflect the reality on the ground.
1,810 soldiers desert every year
In an article by our colleagues at Franceinfo, we read the account of a young man who took advantage of a period of leave to desert the army, despite the penalty he faced, as in France, deserters are prosecuted before military courts, where they face up to three years’ imprisonment.
This young man explains that he made his decision because of the Vigipirate patrols. In his view, they are uninspiring, repetitive and tedious – a far, far cry from his original dream. "We don’t do anything; we’re just flowerpots. It’s not that we want anything in particular to happen, but in the end we ask ourselves, ‘What’s the point of us?’" – he adds.
This is not a new phenomenon: over the past ten years, an average of 1,810 soldiers have deserted each year. That is nearly 10 per cent of the annual intake.