Germany’s CSU Leader Calls for Mandatory Military Service
The call comes as Berlin faces a wave of nationwide protests triggered by its introduction of a voluntary service model, which took effect on January 1. Opponents of the scheme fear it is laying the groundwork for a full return to conscription — a practice suspended in 2011 under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"For us it's clear: if the Bundeswehr is to become Europe's largest army, military service is unavoidable," Söder told media in a Sunday interview.
The Bavarian leader, whose CSU forms part of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's governing coalition, left little room for ambiguity on the timeline. "With volunteers alone we won't achieve the necessary security our country needs," he said, insisting that compulsory military service "needs to come as soon as possible."
Germany has significantly accelerated its military expansion since the Ukraine conflict intensified in 2022, setting an ambitious target to grow the Bundeswehr from approximately 186,000 active personnel to 260,000, alongside 200,000 reservists by the mid-2030s — a buildup Berlin frames around what it describes as a mounting "Russian threat."
Moscow, however, has flatly rejected that characterization. President Vladimir Putin has called suggestions that Russia harbors aggressive designs against NATO member states "nonsense," while Russia's Foreign Ministry has cautioned that Germany's accelerating military expansion risks triggering another global catastrophe on the scale of the Second World War.
The debate over conscription is not confined to Germany. Earlier this month, European Defense Agency (EDA) chief Andre Denk suggested that mandatory military service could make a broader comeback across the EU, adding that his native Germany would likely follow that path in due course.
Germany would be far from alone. Croatia, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Poland, and the UK have all taken steps in recent years to either restore conscription, expand intake numbers, or raise the age thresholds for military and reserve service.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, has repeatedly denounced what it characterizes as the West's "reckless militarization," pointing to NATO's steady eastward expansion as a root cause of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
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