Demand for a return to conscription in Germany
NATO is arming itself, and the Bundeswehr is also trying
NATO has no other choice: the military alliance must arm itself on the border with Russia, if only to calm its members in the Baltic and Eastern Europe. But some doubt whether the Bundeswehr is well prepared for this job.
The Russian attack has fueled the debate over German conscription. From the CDU comes the demand for “more deterrent presence”. According to a position paper, the Bundeswehr has a key role to play. The SPD holds against it. More rearmament is not the answer.
AIn view of Russia’s military aggression, there is a first call for a return to conscription in Germany, which has been suspended since 2011. “The reintroduction of conscription is a decisive signal for ensuring effective military deterrence and alliance capability by Germany,” says a position paper by the Lower Saxony CDU, which is exclusively available to WELT AM SONNTAG.
State party leader Bernd Althusmann argues that if NATO wants to be credible as an effective alliance, it must “qualitatively and quantitatively strengthen its deterrent presence” against Russia in Central and Eastern Europe. The Bundeswehr has a key role to play in setting up the appropriate multinational combat units. “In order to make the Bundeswehr fit for the future, general compulsory service with the possibility of conscription must be gradually reintroduced, taking into account training capacities,” Althusman explains the ideas.
According to the Union politician, the armored combat troops in particular would have to be “expanded and reactivated” again. In addition, the “German security architecture, including the armed forces, must optimize its defense capabilities with regard to ‘hybrid warfare'”.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich, on the other hand, has expressed reservations about higher military spending in response to the Ukraine war. “We will provide the Bundeswehr with everything it needs for its mission. But more rearmament cannot be the answer,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “It would be wiser to finally pool our military forces in Europe.”
“A Fully Capable Army”
Finance Minister and FDP leader Lindner had said “that the funds for the Bundeswehr must be increased” because the German armed forces “have been managed for many, many years to wear out”. German politics must learn “that the defense of alliances is also a political priority”.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck also made a similar statement. Germany must ensure that it has “a fully capable army,” he said on Thursday evening in the ARD daily topics. One can also have doubts about that.
Mützenich said that the NATO countries spend 1 trillion US dollars a year on defense and that the Europeans are already investing many times the Russian budget in their military. He pinned his hopes on international disarmament and arms control treaties. “This is the only way we can make the world safer in the long term.”