The German cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday, November 7th, that seeks to assess the readiness of 18-year-olds to serve in the country’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
The proposed legislation aims to gather data on potential recruits as Germany looks to increase its military personnel to fulfill NATO commitments without reintroducing conscription.
Mandatory service was abolished in 2011 and has lately become subject to heated debates, not least since Berlin began contemplating its reintroduction as a response to the war in Ukraine.
Currently, Germany has around 180,000 active soldiers and 60,000 reservists. However, it aims to reach 203,000 active soldiers by 2031 and expand its reserve capacity by another 200,000 potential soldiers to allow a rapid mobilization of up to 460,000 troops in case of war.
With conscription’s end in 2011, Germany also halted the automatic registration of 18-year-olds for military service, resulting in a lack of up-to-date data on the pool of potential recruits.
This new law, therefore, intends to re-establish an overview by requiring all men turning 18—estimated at about 300,000 every year—to complete a digital survey regarding their interest in joining the army.
Under the proposed model, young women will also receive the survey, although they are not required to respond.
This final draft the significantly watered-down version of an already “light” conscription model that was originally proposed by the German defense ministry.
Under the initial plans, the ministry could have selected a small number of young people among those who declared willingness to serve for medical examinations, and then draft only 5,000 conscripts from among them each year, with options to increase this number later on.
However, the liberal FDP party—the socialists and greens’ junior coalition partner—refused to agree to this plan because it felt that any compulsory element would be still unfair, even if only those eligible for conscription had already said they would want to join.
After succeeding in hijacking the legislation and pushing through its softened version, it’s ironic that it was adopted on the same day that the government coalition collapsed after Chancellor Scholz fired his FDP finance minister Christian Lindner and the party’s three other ministers chose to leave the cabinet.
Regardless, the draft law would still be submitted for a parliamentary vote, but even if it passes, it’s unclear how a simple survey can put Germany closer to its ambitious goal of doubling the size of its armed forces.
