Berlin (dpa -Afx) – The President of the Reservist Association, Patrick Sensburg, pleads for a return to compulsory military service to the troop strength of the Bundeswehr to enlarge. “It is not possible voluntarily,” Sensburg told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). As a result of the demographic development and retirement, the number of soldiers even decreases. “We should therefore reactivate conscription.”
At the same time, Sensburg proposes to start a referendum on the question of whether women should also be mandatory. “If there was a majority for this, I don’t know how the Bundestag wanted to escape it,” he says.
The compulsory military service was suspended in 2011, but is still anchored in the Basic Law. It can be reintroduced with a simple majority of the Union and SPD government coalition. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius estimates the need at 50,000 to 60,000 additional soldiers – currently there is a little more than 180,000.
In their coalition agreement, the Union and SPD agreed on a military service “which initially is based on voluntariness”. However, the Union penetrates quickly to decide whether the increase is possible based on the voluntariness.
The President of the German Fire Brigade Association, Karl-Heinz Banse, is in favor of activating the replacement services again with the military service. “My suggestion: If you don’t want to serve the weapon, you could, for example, undertake to participate in a volunteer fire brigade,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” ./ WN/DP/ZB