Compulsory military service: CDU puts pressure – does Pistorius change his plans?

Russia mobilizes. Tens of thousands of soldiers are said to be near Sumy on the border with Ukraine, so Wolodymyr Selenskyj has shown it these days. The goal: a summer offensive.

Western intelligence circles also register the Russian structure of troops carefully. For weeks it has been speculated about what Vladimir Putin is on. Does he really want to tighten the war in Ukraine? Or is he already planning beyond?

Putin, according to the services, has long since been on NATO. With mobilization at the border, the Kremlin ruler wanted to set a sign of strength. The message: Even if the war in Ukraine comes to an end at some point – I am militarily strong enough to move my troops in the direction of Baltic States.

This scenario should also be a reason why a debate flared up in the federal government: Is a voluntary military service that the Defense Minister plans or is it needed to promote the Bundeswehr for an emergency? To make them really defensive? NATO urges, the military officer raises the alarm. Now other CDU politicians are putting pressure.

“We cannot exclude that Putin does not wait until NATO has completed its preparations, but that it previously attacked. So we have to be faster in the first few years. There is therefore a gigantic act of action and time,” warns Norbert Röttgen, the deputy Union faction leader in conversation with that star. “The topic is very priority at the moment. We need an appropriately equipped Bundeswehr-and a Bundeswehr with sufficient staff,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther star.

What both mean: it takes a new adjustment of the black and red Bundeswehr plans, preferably immediately.

“The most important thing for the security of our country is our soldiers, in the necessary number,” says Röttgen. In the coalition agreement, it is agreed to “first” rely on voluntariness for the recruitment of thousands of other soldiers. But both this wording “and the security policy situation force that we are taking a plan B into the law from the outset if voluntariness as Plan A does not lead to the goal.”

The debate is also so delicate because the coalition is split on the question. With the Social Democrats, there is little tendency to change something on the plans now. Matthias Miersch, the SPD parliamentary group leader, recently made it clear about conscription in the next legislative period, not in this. The Greens seem more open. On Sunday, Green icon Joschka Fischer in the “Spiegel” spoke out again to introduce compulsory military service for men and women.

The pressure to act is clear. NATO boss Mark Rutte has already made the Member States to massive investments in defense and deterrence. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has promised the largest conventional army in Europe – a huge goal. So far, the Bundeswehr has around 181,000 soldiers and 34,000 active reservists. In order to achieve the new NATO planning goals, SPD defense minister Boris Pistorius is expecting up to 60,000 additional soldiers by 2032. Pistorius also questions whether the planned new voluntary military service will be sufficient.

“The international security policy situation has changed significantly in recent years,” warns Kiel Prime Minister Daniel Günther. His CDU in Schleswig-Holstein had called for conscription for women and men a year ago and in the long term the introduction of general duty. “If we also need 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers, it is clear: the planned voluntary military service is not enough. I support all considerations that are already preparing to introduce compulsory military service.”

The debate in the coalition should only begin. At the end of the month, NATO wants to set its new goals, then the federal government has the need in black and white. The problem in addition to the coalition agreement: to reintroduce compulsory conscription, which also applies to women, there is probably a two -thirds majority, including a yes on the left. That seems illusory.

That is why one thinks in the Pistorius Ministry in the Pistorius, it is said to be thinking about adding compulsory elements in the planned military service law. According to the motto: If there are no voluntary men, suitable candidates could be obliged to serve, for example. It makes it similar to Sweden. Time is pushing. The law should come into force on January 1, 2026. Pistorius would have to go into conflict with his own party.

He would have the coalition partner on his side. “We have no security policy scope for failing when listing the necessary German forces,” warns CDU foreign expert Röttgen. “The fact that German politics finally takes the measures to ensure the external security of our country has absolute priority.”