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Germany’s cabinet has approved a new voluntary military service after a last-minute dispute within the ruling coalition about the need for a more ambitious model.
Defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday that the international security situation, especially “Russia’s aggressive behaviour”, made the plan to recruit up to 40,000 teenagers a year essential.
Speaking after a special cabinet session held in a secure bunker at the defence ministry, Pistorius said boosting the size of the country’s armed forces was as vital as the huge German rearmament drive that began after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The Bundeswehr must grow,” he said. “Only then is deterrence against Russia truly credible.”
Under the legislation, from January, all 18-year-old men would be required to fill out a survey to assess their suitability, availability and willingness to serve in the armed forces. The questionnaire would be voluntary for women.
A cohort of young people willing to serve would then be selected for military training for a minimum of six months. Germany is targeting about 20,000 recruits next year due to limited training capacity, with the aim of reaching an annual cohort of 40,000 by 2031.
The approval came after foreign minister Johann Wadephul agreed to drop his objections to the bill, which must still be passed by the Bundestag and faces further wrangling.
Wadephul is one of several prominent members of German chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) who felt the plan did not go far enough in addressing personnel shortages in the German armed forces, with consequences for the country’s ability to meet its Nato commitments.
“This draft law will not make Germany capable of defending itself,” CDU foreign policy expert and the party’s deputy parliamentary leader Norbert Röttgen told RND ahead of Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.
He warned that the EU’s largest nation needed to find an extra 90,000 soldiers by 2035, adding, “if we squander this legislative period, then that number will be barely achievable”.
Pistorius, a Social Democrat, has had to balance the need to recruit more soldiers with deep resistance in his party to a return to mandatory conscription, which was suspended in Germany in 2011.
His draft bill includes a provision for the Bundestag to consider a return to compulsory enlistment if the voluntary model fails to attract enough recruits, without setting any fixed timeline or targets.
The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, have pushed for the legislation to include an automatic return to conscription if certain benchmarks are not met within a stipulated timeline.
Thomas Erndl, the CDU/CSU’s defence spokesman, told newspaper Tagesspiegel that the legislation would not be allowed to pass the Bundestag “without significant changes”.
Merz has sought to play down the dispute — which comes amid other tensions within his coalition about social welfare cuts and taxes — describing it as a “completely normal” part of the process of governing.
The cabinet on Wednesday also approved the creation of Germany’s first national security council, which was a campaign pledge by Merz.
