“La giovane generazione si solleva”: il Dipartimento della Difesa riesce a malapena a tenere il passo con le richieste

For outgoing State Secretary of  Defense Gijs Tuinman, sitting still was not an option last year. He takes stock on NPO 1’s Goedemorgen Nederland program. His conclusion: Defense is growing again, and young people in particular are flocking to the armed forces.

The acceleration at the Ministry of Defense did not come out of nowhere. According to Tuinman, the pace at which the armed forces must be brought up to speed is directly linked to the threat. “It’s not because I want it or because the cabinet wants it. It’s about the scenarios we are facing. Deterrence is essential. If you have that in place, others, such as Putin in this case, will think twice about crossing the border somewhere.”

This also means that the Ministry of Defense must prepare as quickly as possible. “The speed with which you have to be ready is determined by someone else. We can only ensure that we are ready as quickly as possible.”

The goal is to grow to 100,000 people by 2030. That goal is getting closer and closer: this year, the workforce grew by 20 percent to around 80,000. Tuinman is visibly proud. “We often hear comments about the younger generation, that they are lazy. That is simply not true. They are taking a huge step forward. All our programs are packed.”

At the same time, the popularity of the Defense is creating new challenges. For example, the organization is struggling to process the large influx of applications. “That’s right,” Tuinman acknowledges. “We have therefore invested heavily in additional instructors. The bottleneck now is speeding up recruitment, selection, and appointment. Bureaucracy is still getting in the way, but we expect to have solutions for that by 2026.”

The role of the royal family has not gone unnoticed either. Since Princess Amalia enlisted in the armed forces, the number of applications has increased further. “We really saw that happen,” says Tuinman. “Applications roughly doubled.”

Royal family expert Justine Marcella says this is logical: “You saw the same thing when Willem-Alexander announced that he was going to study in Leiden. I don’t think Leiden has ever had so many applications from female students. It’s the same with Amalia. Suddenly, a lot more people are interested in this topic.”

Although there is a good chance that Tuinman will leave after the formation of a new cabinet, he is not yet looking back. “I’m just trying to keep going until the last day,” he says. With a wink, he adds: “After that, I might take a break and become a reservist with the Korps Commandotroepen. Then I can get back in the field.”

I gotta say as a Dutch person, I’m positively surprised. Almost no one my generation (late millennial) has been at all interested in military service during my time growing up. And even if you ask them now, if they’d pick up a gun and fight, they mostly say hell no. And most of my friends are actually 3-6 years younger than me, so the range is from early to late 30’s.

So clearly there’s been a mentality shift. I wonder what spurred it on.

Is this what “rising up” means? Fighting for some grudge of a handful of old almost senile men?

Of course they’ll say that. But let the numbers prove it. I highly doubt many are signing up to fight a war that doesn’t need to happen.

This is probably a recession indicator.