With a view to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has restarted the discussion about general compulsory military service. He sees good arguments for general compulsory military service in Germany to strengthen civil protection, the armed forces and rescue services. “You could show how important these institutions are for the functioning of our society,” said the SPD politician of the German Press Agency on Wednesday.
Pistorius receives support from the Bundeswehr Reserves Association. Association chief Patrick Sensburg told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that the Bundeswehr’s most fundamental task was national defense. “That requires different material and a lot more staff.” Realistically, an active force of 350,000 soldiers and around 1.2 million reservists would be needed for the defense of the Federal Republic, Sensburg explained. At the moment, however, Germany does not even have 200,000 soldiers and 30,000 reservists who practice regularly. “In my opinion, it will not work without conscription,” concluded the president of the reservists’ association.
According to a recent survey, however, there is no majority in the population for general conscription for men and women. In the survey by the opinion research institute Kantar, 46 percent of those questioned spoke out in favor, 50 percent against, as the organization Greenpeace announced on Thursday as the client. In the east, approval was lower than in the west. Greenpeace wanted to get an opinion before the Munich Security Conference.
However, in the group of people under the age of 29, there was a majority (Yes: 58 percent) in favor of general conscription. Approval was therefore given by supporters of the FDP (69 percent), the Union (58 percent), the SPD (55 percent) and just under the AfD (50 percent), while supporters of the Greens and Left were mostly against. When asked “Would you like to do military service personally?” 55 percent of young men under the age of 30 answered yes, while women in the same age group answered no at 67 percent.
Politically, a majority of those questioned spoke in favor of a diplomatic leadership role for Germany in the EU (Yes: 75 percent, No: 22 percent). On the other hand, when asked about a military leadership role, only 31 percent answered yes, but 64 percent no.
When asked whether the Bundeswehr should receive a further 200 billion euros in addition to the regular Bundeswehr budget and the 100 billion euro special fund, 43 percent said yes, but 48 percent no. There was no majority for an increase in the Bundeswehr budget through debt or tax increases. Above all, however, it was expected (66 percent) that higher spending for the Bundeswehr would lead to cuts in other areas such as climate protection or social affairs.
“The results show that people in Germany are skeptical about the focus on military dominance,” says Thomas Breuer, head of peace at Greenpeace Germany, “instead they want Germany to play a diplomatic leadership role.” Greenpeace opposes investing further extra funds in the Bundeswehr after the special fund. Otherwise, this money would be missing for other important areas such as climate protection.
Compulsory military service was suspended in 2011 after 55 years under the then CSU Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, which in practice was tantamount to abolishing military and civilian service. The Russian attack on Ukraine had recently repeatedly triggered a debate on this issue.
