The parties that make up the German government coalition – the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – reached a principle of agreement to approve a bill for the modernization of military servicewhich contemplates the possibility of a mandatory recruitment by lottery if there are not enough volunteers, copying the model already used in Denmark.
“If it is achieved through voluntariness and with a greater attractiveness of military service to obtain enough soldiers, it will be fine. If it is not achieved, we need mandatory elements and then it is a question of justice,” declared the head of the Christian Democratic parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, before a meeting of conservative deputies in the Bundestag.
“It seems to me that the proposed procedure is the fairestat least I have not heard another fairer proposal,” he asserted, two days before the bill prepared by the Minister of Defense, Boris Pistoriusbe debated for the first time in plenary.
The head of the Social Democratic parliamentary group, Matthias Miersch, also welcomed the fact that the two blocs have finally reached some preliminary agreements that, according to him, will constitute a good basis for parliamentary deliberations.
Miersch stressed on the one hand the importance of voluntariness and, on the other, the question of how the process can be “as fair as possible”; and he advanced that, with respect to the draw, experts will probably be invited to the Bundestag to give testimony to evaluate this model for the second reading.
He Compulsory military service was suspended in Germany in 2011, But since the previous legislature, the possibility of partially reintroducing it has been discussed, something that has however been firmly opposed by the majority of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
In August, the Council of Ministers finally approved a bill that contemplates the possibility of activate mandatory recruitment if circumstances require it and if it is not possible to recruit enough volunteers, although the practical details of this possibility remained up in the air.
According to the draft, it is planned that Starting in 2026, all young people will receive a form about their skills and willingness to provide the service military, which men must complete under penalty of a fine.
According to the agreement reached this Tuesday, uPart of the men will be selected by lottery to undergo samplingif not enough volunteers show up.
In a third step, if the voluntary recruitment objectives are not achieved, the Bundestag could approve the need to compulsorily recruit the missing men, who would be determined by lottery among those sampled.
In it danish modela lottery determines which 18-year-old boys and girls can be compulsorily recruited for an 11-month service if the volunteer quota is not reached.