The German government has adopted a draft law on Wednesday who introduces a voluntary military service, because the country seeks to strengthen the national defense due to security threats coming from Russia.
The text of the law also opens the possibility of reinstalling the mandatory military service.
The Ministry of Defense hopes that the voluntary six-month program will help that the number of trained reservists increase from the current approximately 100,000, and that some volunteers will continue their career in the active service.
The legal proposal is likely to encounter the challenges in parliament, which will be a test for the German commitment to the National Defense in a time of growing security threats after Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022. Years.
Germany has abolished the previous mandatory military service program 2011. years and has been facing problems in meeting the number of soldiers since then.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius wants to increase the number of soldiers from 180,000 to 260,000 to the beginning of the 2030s to meet the new NATO objectives and strengthened the German Defense, which is part of the planned increase in military budget.
– Bundeswehr must grow – said Pistorius on the press conference on Wednesday and added that “International Security Situation, primarily Russian aggressive policy, makes this necessary.”
The new bill already contains some mandatory elements, with all the young men after the age of 18 must fill in the online questionnaire regarding their readiness and abilities for military service to get better insight into potentially available military resources.
Critics, especially in the ranks of Conservatives of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, believe that the approval of the Bundestag could delay the reintroduction of the mandatory military service. They want the law to activate the military service automatically in case recruitment objectives have not been achieved.
Deputies from the ranks of Pistorius’ Social Democratic Party (SPD), minority partner in Merzo Coalition, believe that the priority should be to make a BundesWehr an attractive employer, not returning a mandatory service.
In the last years, the Defense has amplified regional advertising, organized career salons and group camps, and opened new centers for visiting soldiers in an attempt to recruit a number of soldiers.
Armed forces reported an increase of 28 percent in the number of recruited soldiers, with more than 13,700 new members from January to the end of July, compared to the same period last year, which the Ministry is called the largest increase in recent years.
(Vijesti.ba)
