The war in Ukraine and new German military ambitions are fueling the debate on the return of military service, but the obstacles are legion.
From our correspondent in Berlin, Pascale Hugues
© THOMAS IMO / Photothek / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
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IWill military service be reintroduced in Germany? The war in Ukraine and the need to make the German army more efficient have reopened an old debate that we thought was buried forever. It was the brand new Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius who put the subject back on the table. A few days ago, he let it be known that in his view the abolition of conscription in 2011 had been a mistake. The wall had then fallen for two decades and the possibility of a new war in Europe was science fiction. Unified, surrounded by friends, Germany cut back on its military expenses and sent the young conscripts back to their homes.
Boris Pistorius recalls with nostalgia this bygone era when “a conscript was seated at the table of one out of two German kitchens”. Today, young people can volunteer for a year of service. According to the Bundeswehr, only 9,600 of them offered their services voluntarily in 2022.
The Social Democratic Minister is not the only one within the coalition to vaguely mention a possible return of young people to the barracks. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, President of the Bundestag Defense Committee and member of the small Liberal Party, quotes Article 12a of the Constitution which stipulates that in the event of military aggression against Germany all men from 18 can be called up to join the army, border control units or civil services. “The abolition of military service, she recalls, is only valid in times of peace. In times of tension or in case the country has to ensure its own defense, conscription can again be activated. »
READ ALSOGermans divided over sending fighter jets to UkrainePassion that Christian Lindner, party leader and Minister of Finance, hastened to curb. ” There is no question ! This is a phantom debate. For him, all efforts must be focused on building a highly professional army. As for young people, we need them on the labor market which suffers from a lack of qualified labor in all branches.
Several barriers
While the idea of recalling young Germans to the military may seem logical at a time when Olaf Scholz has decided to modernize the Bundeswehr, which is experiencing both a shortage of weapons and manpower, its costly implementation would come up against several practical obstacles. of size.
First, the army is no longer what it used to be. Eberhard Zorn, the inspector general of the armies, immediately spoke out against the reintroduction of military service. What a modern army needs today, he says, is well-trained and partly highly specialized personnel. The weapons are now much more sophisticated and need to be handled by soldiers who have undergone very specific training.
Second: conscription would be open to women, which would greatly increase the number of conscripts and pose new logistical problems. In 2011, the Bundeswehr hastened to sell barracks, parade grounds and other buildings. She dismantled all the infrastructure needed to perform the aptitude tests.
READ ALSOWar in Ukraine: Germany’s brutal transformation
During the last years of conscription, the Bundeswehr received and trained 30,000 conscripts each year. If we reintroduced military service today, some 700,000 young people, men… and women, aged 18, would be affected. Ensuring their training and housing them would represent a colossal effort and significant expense for an under-equipped army busy managing shortages. Chancellor Scholz has certainly released an envelope of 100 billion euros to modernize the Bundeswehr. But this sum, which the newly appointed Minister of Defense has judged to be totally insufficient, is intended primarily for the purchase of new weapons and the restoration of equipment. What an editorial writer summarizes in these unflattering words: “With the tight budget at its disposal, the Bundeswehr has other priorities at the moment than ensuring the training of moderately motivated 19-year-old forced recruits. »