Poll: 51.1% of Poles oppose restoring conscription, but 76.6% back mandatory military training

The poll numbers

Asked whether mandatory military service should be restored given the international situation, 51.1% of respondents said no, 37.7% said yes, and 11.2% had no opinion. The survey by IBRiS for the daily Rzeczpospolita was conducted by CATI on 10-11 July 2026 among 1,067 people.

Opposition that crosses party lines

Negative views on restoring conscription spanned political divides, with 56% of non-voters, 50% of opposition supporters, and 49% of the governing camp opposing it. The highest opposition came from women (54%), thirty-somethings (65%), residents of large cities (59%) and small towns (58%), holders of university degrees (60%), self-declared centrists (59%), and those who get their international news mainly from social media (57%).

Clear support for military training

While the draft is rejected, 76.6% of respondents favour introducing mandatory military training for women and men, with only 17.6% against and 5.8% undecided. Support is strongest among governing coalition voters (85%), men (87%), forty-year-olds (84%), small-town residents (86%), people with secondary education (83%), and those with left-wing views (83%).

The view from the military

General Roman Polko told Fakt that a communication gap is behind the opposition. "First, there are resentments from a past era, when time was wasted and there was no meaningful training. Second, people are afraid that if they are called up they will be sent straight to the front with a shovel and a Kalashnikov," he said. Polko stressed the need to explain how the service would work and to guarantee that conscripts would not be cannon fodder but would be treated according to their skills.

The army, if it offers such service, wants to train people for their own safety.

A different view comes from retired lieutenant general Leon Komornicki, a former deputy chief of the General Staff, who advocates immediate restoration of an eight-month conscription for all secondary school graduates, both men and women, as part of defence education.

The legal and political backdrop

Conscription in Poland was suspended on 1 January 2010, when the country moved to a fully professional army. The law on defence of the fatherland allows the president, at the request of the Council of Ministers, to swiftly reinstate the draft. The government currently has no plans to bring it back but is working on making voluntary military training more attractive. Debate on the topic has been running at least since February 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine.