Traffic light factions already agree
Germany gets Veterans Day
November 11, 2023, 9:22 p.m
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The traffic light factions are on the same wavelength when it comes to this topic: Like in the USA, there should be a Veterans Day in Germany. The former soldiers are to be honored with a central event, as well as many smaller events throughout Germany.
It already exists in the USA, and in Germany former soldiers of the Bundeswehr will also have a memorial day in the future. “Germany is getting a Veterans Day,” said SPD defense politician Johannes Arlt to the “Tagesspiegel”. “We agree on this in the traffic light factions and will clarify the final details next week with the Union faction, which we would like to have on board on this issue.”
Alexander Müller, the defense policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, also confirmed to the newspaper: “Veterans Day will come.” It was only on Friday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz signaled support for “an initiative from the middle of the Bundestag” at the Bundeswehr conference.
The Union, as the largest opposition faction, had already submitted a corresponding motion to the Bundestag a few weeks ago – and now welcomes the traffic light agreement: “I am pleased that there is a consensus in the democratic center to appropriately recognize the achievements of our soldiers,” Johann Wadephul, the vice-president of the Union parliamentary group responsible for defense policy, told the newspaper that they were “only negotiating the exact design”: “We are proposing November 12th, the Bundeswehr’s birthday, as Veterans Day with a central, but also many smaller events throughout Germany – but are also open for other days.”
Arlt emphasized that the joint motion in parliament should also decide on better social benefits and that it is about “closing a number of gaps in care for veterans.” For example, they want to organize support from the state “uniformly, regardless of whether someone was a temporary or professional soldier.” In addition, deadlines should be adjusted because “post-traumatic stress disorders can only occur after a long delay”.