Response to interpellation 2025/26:502 on basic physical ability
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns basic physical ability and its importance for the defense. M believes that Sweden has a strong personnel supply system where conscription forms the basis 1. M argues that the conscripts are skilled and that declining public health has not yet affected basic training 1 2. M wants to expand conscription to 12,000 people and wants to include more women 2. M argues that the government has taken broader measures for public health 2. S argues that physical activity is a readiness issue 3. S argues that poorer fitness among young people affects the recruitment base 3. S advocates for closer cooperation between schools, the sports movement, and the municipalities 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! Erik Ezelius has asked me if I and the government have made any analysis of a changed physical basic capacity among our conscripts and what it implies for, among other things, the Armed Forces, and, if so has been done, if I and the government have taken any measures on the basis of the result.
I welcome the questions and the broader societal perspective that Erik Ezelius highlights in the interpellation. The challenges that exist in society today regarding physical inactivity, increased sedentary behavior, and mental ill-health are also reflected among our youth who are enrolling in basic training with military service.
Lack of physical activity is a major contributing cause to many challenges for public health. The Government is actively working with the broad public health perspective to contribute to improved conditions for well-being among the population.
Conscription will continue to constitute the basis for the Armed Forces' personnel supply. It is a prerequisite for developing and maintaining a defense with such a volume that it is dimensioned to defend Sweden and our allies in the event of an armed attack.
The Swedish Defence Readiness Administration (Plikt- och prövningsverket) is the authority that carries out activities and assignments within staffing support and personnel supply for the Swedish Armed Forces. Every year, the authority sends out a web-based survey to all youth subject to total defence obligation who will turn 18 that year. This muster basis contains questions about, among other things, health, physical conditions, schooling, personality, and attitude towards completing basic training with military service. Based on the youths' self-assessment, the Swedish Defence Readiness Administration then makes a selection of those who have the best conditions to complete basic training with military or civil service. These are then called to muster.
According to the agency's regulatory letter for 2026, they are tasked with reporting analysis and results from their work with the muster and enrollment of those subject to universal defense obligation. This is an important starting point in the agencies' continued work.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Defence, for the answer!
When we think of war, it is easy for us to focus on battles, weapons, and military operations. But war is also about people and how they are affected when society is subjected to great pressures. During a war, everyday life changes rapidly, and people must be able to handle both physical and psychological challenges while making important decisions under uncertain conditions.
For soldiers, war entails great demands on physical endurance, discipline, and courage. A soldier may need to work for long periods with limited sleep, heavy physical strain, and a constant risk of danger. It also requires the ability to cooperate with others, follow orders, and remain calm in stressful situations. However, it is not just about physical strength. Mental strength is at least as important because soldiers are often faced with difficult ethical and emotional challenges.
At the same time, the civilian population is also strongly affected by war. Civilians may need to manage with limited access to food, water, electricity, and healthcare. Many are forced to adapt to an uncertain everyday life where information can be difficult to trust and where threats to security occur. Therefore, responsibility, preparedness, and the ability to cooperate with other people are required. Additionally, many need to continue working within society-critical activities such as healthcare, transport, energy, and communication for society to function.
Something that is common to both soldiers and civilians is the need for strong physical and mental health. Good physical health provides better endurance, strength, and the ability to withstand prolonged exertion, lack of sleep, and stress. At the same time, mental health is crucial for being able to make well-considered decisions, manage fear and uncertainty, and continue to act under pressured conditions. Therefore, it is important to develop one's resilience through physical activity, good lifestyle habits, and the ability to manage stress.
A country's defense is built not only on military strength but also on people's will to help one another, follow important instructions, and contribute to the functioning of society. Therefore, both soldiers and civilians play a crucial role for a country's defense and survival in a war situation. It is ultimately about Sweden's total defense.
When we today expand the military and civil defense, we often speak of material ammunition, logistics, and security of supply. This is natural and necessary, but ultimately total defense is based on people – people who must be able to be trained, lead, cooperate, make decisions under pressure, and endure strain.
Sweden has reintroduced conscription and is progressively training more young people for service in the Armed Forces. At the same time, high requirements are placed on physical and mental robustness. If a growing proportion of the youth generation is characterized by lower physical activity, poorer fitness, increased overweight, more sedentary lifestyles, and poorer sleep habits, it also affects the recruitment base for the defense of the future.
Military training involves long days, physical strain, field operations, lack of sleep, cold, stress, and requirements for cooperation under demanding conditions. As said, it requires robustness, and robustness is about significantly more than just muscles.
Research shows that regular physical activity strengthens stress resilience, mental health, concentration, learning, and recovery – abilities that are crucial both in military operations and in societal crises. When we talk about resilience, we must therefore also talk about people's capacity to handle uncertainty, pressure, and prolonged strain.
From that perspective, physical activity becomes not only a public health issue but also a preparedness issue. My question to the Minister is: Does the Minister share my view when I address the need for increased physical activity in society not only to be highlighted as a public health issue but, in fact, as a total defense issue?
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! I agree in all essential respects with the vast majority of what Erik Ezelius states and shall attempt to provide a picture of how things look in the Armed Forces today when it comes to personnel supply, including our conscripts.
Let me say that fundamentally, in an international comparison, Sweden has a good personnel supply system. On one hand, we have continuously employed soldiers who have a high availability, who practice and train and who are available here and now; on the other hand, we have periodically employed soldiers who come in and reinforce the operations. But the basis for the Armed Forces' personnel supply system is, of course, the conscription system and national service, which is not least very important for the mobilizing parts of our defense. I am thinking of the field units and the army.
That system works well and is also attracting great international attention. I have, as Minister of Defence, had incoming visits from France, Germany and the Netherlands, who are looking at our personnel supply system.
We also have very capable conscripts. An expression of that is that over 80 percent of those who complete the basic training recommend it to other people. Approximately one-third also stay within the Armed Forces in one form or another after completing the basic training and having received their war placement. The personnel supply system in Sweden has a good foundation, and it is strong.
When it comes to departures, it is 92–93 percent of those who begin the basic training who also have the opportunity to complete it and then be deployed for combat. It is actually a higher figure than when we had voluntary recruitment; then it was somewhere between 12 and 15 percent of the departures. We are therefore quite successful in finding the right suitable individuals during the conscription process.
I completely share Erik Ezelius's concern, above all, regarding the fact that many young people suffer from mental ill-health and a decline on a physical level. But fortunately, we have not yet seen that the declining public health has affected the Armed Forces' activities when it comes to the ability to carry out the basic training.
Basically, it is a limited number of individuals every year who perform the conscription; we are talking about less than one in ten people. But it is clear that as we expand the conscription, this can become a larger problem and a greater challenge for the Armed Forces in its personnel supply system.
Approximately 93 percent therefore complete the training and do not need to discontinue it due to physical or mental ill health or other reasons.
When it comes to the recruitment survey, it is approximately half of those who fill it out who are judged to have the ability to complete the recruitment process, and after the recruitment process, a further half drop out. But this is, so to speak, an expression that the personnel supply system is functioning well for the time being, and in an international comparison, we have, as I said, a strong system.
With that said, there are every reason to also look more broadly at this issue. I have repeatedly had a dialogue with Jakob Forssmed, who is the Minister for Public Health, to see if we need to take other measures to ensure that public health among young people is strong and good, to prevent people from falling into passivity, and to promote physical activity. I will return to that.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!
It is pleasing to take part in these figures and that it is still such a large proportion that completes the conscription with a passed education and can thus be deployed for combat or continue within the activities of the Armed Forces. It is however also in light of the fact that we are scaling up our total defense, both the military and the civil part, that I want to address the problems that exist linked to the increased physical inactivity.
Madam Speaker! The more young people who grow up with good physical capacity, the larger the recruitment base for conscription will be, and thus the possibility to train more soldiers and the ability to man the war organization. Conversely, a long-term deterioration of young people's physical status risks leading to increased training needs, higher injury frequency, and greater challenges in the work of meeting the Armed Forces' growing personnel needs. Therefore, the link between public health and defense capability must be taken more seriously.
When the investigation *Varje rörelse räknas – hur skapar vi ett samhälle som främjar fysisk aktivitet?* was published, it painted a picture that truly should give cause for reflection. The message is clear: Sweden faces a growing public health challenge with far too many people moving too little and sitting still too much, and particularly concerning is the development among children and young people. The investigation also points out that the problem is not equally distributed, but that there are significant differences between different socioeconomic groups, different education levels, and different parts of the country.
The perhaps most important conclusion is, however, that this is not primarily a problem that can be solved by pointing at the individual. The investigation argues instead that for a long time we have built a society where it is often easier to be sedentary than to be active. Therefore, I argue that interventions are required within school, work life, urban planning, transport systems, healthcare, the sports movement, outdoor life, and much more if we are to create a more active Sweden.
Here I want to particularly highlight the association life and the sports movement. Before young people encounter military service, many of them encounter sports clubs, where they learn endurance, discipline, cooperation, leadership, responsibility, and the ability to handle setbacks. Many of the qualities demanded of the soldiers of the future are already developed on the football pitch, in the gymnasium, on the ski track, or on the orienteering trail. The sports movement is therefore not merely an actor within leisure and recreation, but it is a part of society's resilience capital.
If we are to strengthen total defense as such, the great task is not to develop those who are already active in sports, but the great task is to reach those who stand outside. It is also there that the greatest health gains are found and where society can make the biggest difference, and therefore we need to consider more low-threshold activities. This does not lie within the minister's area of responsibility, but in my final point I will come to the conclusion that this is an issue that must be tackled on a broader front.
From a total defense perspective, it is ultimately more important that many young people reach a good basic physical capacity than that a few reach an elite level. Furthermore, the association life contributes something that is at least equally important: throughout the country, there are leaders, networks, local knowledge, volunteer commitment, and organizational capacity, which are resources that strengthen society's resilience even outside the sports arena. Therefore, we need to see investments in children's and young people's movement as something more than a public health initiative.
We have, as we said, touched upon areas that I know are not on the Minister's desk, and how the future conscripts are handled is not the Försvarsmakten's problem or fault per se. It gets the conscripts it gets. If one wants to achieve a change, it is instead during those 18 years until it is time for conscription that we can make efforts, both in school as well as within sports and association life.
Therefore, my question to the minister, who himself was involved in the dialogue being held with the Minister for Social Affairs: Has the government adopted the issue from a cross-political approach, that is, from the perspective that different ministers can be involved and contribute in different ways within the area? Has a discussion or a piece of work been initiated to create a change? If not, is it something that the minister could take the initiative on?
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! Erik Ezelius says that the Armed Forces get the conscripts they get. Let us be in agreement – and I believe we are fundamentally – that the conscripts are actually very capable. They complete the basic training with very good results.
I believe that Erik Ezelius has completed the basic training in the conscription, and I have done so myself. At that time, however, we had volumes of up to 40,000 conscripts, and I dare say that today's conscripts are among the best we have ever had. Every year, there are also more who want to do the conscription who get to do the conscription – I usually remind that it is a duty but not a right to do the conscription – so we undeniably have capable and qualified conscripts who make it through the basic training.
We will, however, expand the conscription. Just as Erik Ezelius himself has pointed out, we have doubled the conscription in a few years, and the Armed Forces' assessment is that we will reach 10,000 conscripts earlier than 2030 – we are talking 2027 or 2028 – and that we will then go up to at least 12,000. The obligation will therefore become more comprehensive, and there are some things that I think we should keep an extra close eye on and that the government is also working on.
Last year, we saw in the self-assessment that approximately two-thirds of the girls judged that they did not have sufficiently good physical or mental health to be able to undergo the basic training. We have addressed that, as now girls make up approximately 17 percent of those performing the military service, and we want to get more women in. It would also be good for the Armed Forces – it would make it a better organization – and we would then have more to choose from when we recruit. Therefore, the Swedish Defence Readyness Administration, together with the Armed Forces and the Military Service Council, has worked on informing about what is expected of a person performing military service.
What we see is that girls drop out primarily on muscle strength; approximately one-quarter of the girls drop out there. I know that the Armed Forces have therefore reviewed the position requirements. Is that type of muscle requirement really correct for a position that is not necessarily a hunter's service? It is about getting the right person in the right place, that we should have more to choose from and that we should get in more women. I simply think it is important for the buildup of the total defense. It is, therefore, such a measure that the Armed Forces are working on.
As Erik Ezelius has said, the public health perspective is a broader issue that encompasses more than just the Armed Forces or my responsibility as Minister of Defence. We have, among other things, a recurring dialogue with the Agency for Assignment and Assessment regarding what it looks like in the coming cohorts. What does it look like when 110,000 fill out the conscription survey? It gives us a very important basis, at least in the area of self-assessment.
Since then, the government has also taken broader measures in the field of public health, which Erik Ezelius may be aware of. This concerns targeted activities linked to the Public Health Agency, which has been tasked with carrying out a national mobilization for increased movement during 2026. This is being done to promote the movement and increase activity for various focus groups, including youth.
The second dimension in this is mental illness, which is also a growing problem. Therefore, the Armed Forces and 24 other agencies have been tasked with working with both mental health and suicide prevention, and it is also ultimately an employer responsibility that the Armed Forces has. One is thus strengthening the capacity when it comes to both physical activities and mental health.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker: From the government's side, we have also allocated funds to sports activities in Sweden to promote sports activity, primarily with a focus on physical mobility.
Erik Ezelius (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer! I thank you for this debate or discussion.
I believe, as I have said, that we fundamentally have the same approach, that is to say that this is a shared social responsibility. The Minister of Defence has authority over the Armed Forces and can primarily act there, but if we are to be able to build a robustness in the population as such, it is a holistic approach that must be taken.
Therefore, I return to the point that I believe it is extremely important with closer cooperation between the school, the sports movement, the municipalities, and the actors of the total defense. It is not about militarizing sports in any way, but about giving more young people better opportunities to develop the qualities that both the individual and society need. In this way, I believe we can create better public health, stronger social cohesion, and a broader and more robust recruitment base for the future's total defense.
I look forward with confidence to the government's continued work in this issue.
Försvarsministern Pål Jonson (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Erik Ezelius for the debate.
Personnel procurement in Sweden is going well in an international comparison. There are many countries in Europe that are restructuring. Many countries have major problems, not least when it comes to the procurement of officers. Our need for officers is also naturally affected by our Nato integration – closer to 240 officers will need to be assigned to different leadership functions within Nato.
It is pleasing that a third remain within the Armed Forces in one form or another after the basic training. This year we have 860 people who are either studying to become a specialist officer or a reserve officer or are attending the officer program, which is a historically large volume. It is a testament to the fact that we succeed in selecting suitable individuals from society for the basic training, which over 90 percent complete. Many continue thereafter within the Armed Forces, for which we are, of course, grateful in these serious times.
We need to let the Armed Forces grow, and it needs to happen quickly. Material supply, and various material systems, are very much in focus in the defense debate. Now, it is a matter of ensuring that this is followed up with a strong personnel growth. On the whole, we have a good personnel supply system in Sweden, and we will, of course, continue to nurture it. We must also be aware that even in the defense area, we need to take into account the increasingly poorer public health and the increasingly poorer mental well-being among young people.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.