AIn view of the shortage of personnel in the Bundeswehr, the Junge Union (JU) is calling for a so-called compulsory military service quota. All men and women of a year should therefore be mustered again in the future. Only as many of them will be drafted until the Bundeswehr's personnel needs are met. This emerges from a resolution of the German Council of the youth organization of the CDU and CSU, which is available to the German Press Agency. The news portal “t-online” first reported.
The JU plan stipulates that men and women will also be asked about “motivation and willingness to serve” during muster. “Based on the answers, those best suited for military service will be called up until the quota is covered.”
“Voluntariness debate is illusory”
Unfortunately, the topic of national defense has again become topical, “which makes you fall asleep with an uneasy feeling,” said JU chairman Johannes Winkel to the dpa. Voluntary offers from the Bundeswehr have not been successful enough so far. “This entire voluntary debate is pretty illusory,” said Winkel. It is true that the contingent military duty is a “significant interference in the way one lives one’s life”. Nevertheless, it is a much more threatening encroachment to live in a country that is not capable of defending itself.
At a party conference in 2022, the CDU had already spoken out in favor of a compulsory social year for young people, which they can complete, among other things, in social institutions, hospitals, the Bundeswehr, the fire department or nature and environmental protection associations. However, according to Winkel, this would be a “giant reform” that could take years to implement. The compulsory military service quota is a model that can be implemented in the short term, he argued.
Compulsory military service was suspended in Germany in July 2011 after 55 years under the then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), which in practice amounted to an abolition of military and community service. The topic came into focus again after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and there were calls from various quarters for a reintroduction or for new models of compulsory service.
In view of the shortage of personnel in the Bundeswehr, Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is having several models of compulsory service examined. This includes the model practiced in Sweden, where all young women and men are screened and a selected number receive offers for service.