Politico: The dilemma of reinstating compulsory military service threatens the unity of Germany’s ruling coalition
Politico reported, that Germany’s ruling coalition is heading toward a conflict over the form of the country’s new military conscription law, with the conservative Christian Democratic Party (CDU) arguing for a year of compulsory service, while the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) advocates for a voluntary model.
The bill represents an attempt by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to address the chronic shortage of personnel in the German military without fully reinstating conscription, which Germany suspended in 2011.
The draft law is scheduled to be presented to the Cabinet on August 27.
Under the proposal, all men of military age will be required to register and undergo a screening process, but only a limited number will be called up for service, with women eligible to volunteer.
The government hopes to recruit approximately 5,000 additional volunteer soldiers annually, with service periods of up to 23 months.
Importantly, compulsory service will only be implemented if Bundestag votes on it in a separate resolution.
For now, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is distancing himself from the conflict, but some senior members of the Christian Democratic Union hope to bring him to the negotiating table.
The Christian Democrats want the law to move forward by introducing a year of compulsory service, which would include compulsory military service as one option, alongside civilian alternatives such as working in hospitals or schools.
They reject the idea of requiring a parliamentary vote to activate conscription in crisis situations, a key requirement of the legislation.
In this context, Norbert Röttgen, a conservative expert on foreign and defense policy, told the Welt newspaper, “If conscription is used only in escalating military crises, it becomes a reactive tool rather than a deterrent”.
He added: “It’ll come too late, it will lose popular acceptance, and its true purpose will be lost”.
He asked: “What is conscription supposed to achieve in the current crisis?”
For his part, Röttgen Pistorius, a member of the Social Democratic Party, accused Pistorius of “only implementing one aspect of the settlement by focusing solely on volunteering,” without clear goals or an automatic mechanism for switching to compulsory conscription in the event of a shortage of volunteers.
“This won’t work… There must be mandatory improvements,” he said.
Other Christian Democrats support this view, with several parliamentary advisers telling Politico they doubt the bill, in its current form, will gain the political support necessary to pass.
