The CDU/CSU and SPD have settled their dispute over the new military service. Details are to be presented on Thursday. It appears that entire age groups will again be subject to conscription.
Representatives of the CDU/CSU and SPD have reached an agreement in principle after weeks of dispute over the new military service law. According to information obtained by WELT, the parliamentary groups will be informed of the result on Thursday starting at 8:00 a.m. A press statement is planned for 9:15 a.m.
The crisis meeting on Wednesday evening was attended by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), the parliamentary leaders of the CDU/CSU and SPD, Jens Spahn (CDU) and Matthias Miersch (SPD), as well as defense experts from both parliamentary groups.
According to information obtained by the newspaper"Bild," all young men of a given year will be required to undergo a conscription medical examination. If not enough volunteers come forward among those deemed fit for military service, a lottery system would be used as a second step. The lottery would then determine who must join the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces). Defense Minister Pistorius had pushed for the conscription of an entire year group.
In his original draft legislation for the new military service, Pistorius had initially relied on voluntary service to attract recruits to the Bundeswehr. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group demanded targets for troop growth and a selection process in case not enough men and women volunteered for service.
Defense policy experts from the CDU/CSU and SPD in the Bundestag therefore drafted a compromise proposal in mid-October. According to this proposal, a lottery system would determine who would be required to undergo mandatory conscription. If not enough volunteers were found, men selected according to the needs of the Bundeswehr would be conscripted into military service via a further lottery system.
Minister Pistorius, for his part, had rejected this double lottery system – which now appears to be off the table – and blocked an official announcement of the agreement by parliamentary representatives. Also contentious was the future status of conscripts – as volunteers or as financially better-off temporary soldiers.
According to Pistorius's plan, the new military service law is to come into force at the beginning of 2026. Due to the threat from Russia and the resulting changes to NATO plans, the German armed forces are to grow by around 80,000 to 260,000 men and women in the standing army. In addition, there are to be 200,000 reservists, whose numbers are to be increased primarily through the new conscription system.
