The CMS NGO said the government's plan to "popularise the military and militarise" the society would cost taxpayers HRK 300-400 million annually and was detrimental to national interests such as the modernisation of the education system and the reduction of unemployment and social inequalities.
In Croatia, where the youth unemployment rate is among the highest in the EU, instead of investing money to solve such problems, young people are offered conscription, the NGO said.
Unlike the CMS, security analysts Mate Lausic, Igor Tabak and Mirko Bilandzic believe that Croatia should introduce conscription but not based on the government's model of "month-long camping" but based on a model that would include appropriate training, for which they said the government lacked funding.
Lausic said Croatia has only 16,000 professional soldiers and that it does not have active reserve forces or conscripts as the second and third echelons in the event of combat activity.
"The fact that we are a NATO member does not mean that we don't have to defend ourselves in the case of an attack. We are under NATO's protection to the extent we participate in it, which is very little," Lausic told Hina.
Bilandzic said that conscription should result from a political and national consensus based on precise calculations and strategic goals.
If there is no national consensus and social support regarding the purpose and type of conscription, that could result in opposition and a large number of conscientious objectors, he said.
Tabak said that Croatia already has a system of voluntary military service but that nobody is mentioning that.
"It is not clear why that existing model should not be improved and why new models are being planned that are even less serious", Tabak said.