Germany, military service agreement fails

2025-10-15 09:07:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

In the debate over military service in Germany, it appears that the agreement reached by negotiators from the ruling coalition parties CDU/CSU and SPD has failed for the time being.

According to media reports, there had been resistance within the Social Democratic parliamentary group regarding changes to the planned military service model, and therefore a joint press conference of these parties, where clarifications and relevant details would have been provided, was canceled at the last moment.

There has apparently been resistance within the SPD to the lottery system proposed by the CDU/CSU. This system was intended to come into effect if too few volunteers were registered for the Bundeswehr. A spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said: "We cancelled the press conference because the intended agreement was not reached, even though we thought it would be."

The debate on voluntary military service

The debate within the coalition ranks concerns the question of whether the new military service that Germany is planning should rely exclusively on voluntary recruitment, as Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had proposed, or whether mandatory elements should also be included in the law.

According to the proposal of Defense Minister Pistorius, starting next year every young man or woman in Germany will receive a questionnaire from the Bundeswehr. Men must answer it, girls can answer this questionnaire. It asks who is willing to perform military service voluntarily and those who express a positive opinion about this will then be tested.

There are doubts within the CDU/CSU that the Bundeswehr can recruit sufficient personnel on a purely voluntary basis, as Minister Pistorius proposes.

And over the weekend, media outlets reported on the possible inclusion of a lottery system in the Draft Law on Military Service. The idea is that if there are not enough volunteers, a lottery will be held among those who meet the requirements for military service to determine who will be recruited and, if necessary, the person will be drafted for military service for at least six months.

The German Bundeswehr currently has 182,000 soldiers, but needs an additional 60,000 to 80,000 new soldiers.

Suspension of military service

In 2011, Germany abolished conscription and compulsory military service, as the Cold War had long since ended. The then Defense Minister, Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, said that military service had not been abolished, but simply suspended, because no one knows what will happen in 20 or 30 years. But it didn't last long, and in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. This raised new, essentially old questions: Can Germany defend itself and how will soldiers be recruited?/ DW