Agency Report –
Berlin – Germany may need to introduce compulsory elements in military service over the long term, according to the commander of the division for homeland security.
“For the protection of critical defence infrastructure, I simply need more soldiers than we can currently get,” Major General Andreas Henne told the RND media group in remarks published on Tuesday.
He added that the plan is to recruit enough volunteers initially so that compulsory service would not be necessary. “But the more soldiers we need, the more likely it is that we will reach the limits of voluntary enlistment,” he said, without specifying what form compulsory measures might take.
The governing coalition of the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD) plans to introduce a new military service model initially based on voluntary enlistment, according to the coalition agreement.
This represents a compromise that meets SPD demands, while the CDU/CSU had pushed to end the suspension of compulsory military service.
Conscription was suspended in 2011, effectively ending mandatory military and civilian service in practice.
Henne expects the first voluntary recruits to be called up later this year.
