A leading German NATO general, Christian Badia, has called for the reintroduction of military conscription in the face of a potential need for up to 60,000 German soldiers and tens of thousands of reservists.
In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Badia said that reintroducing conscription would be a necessary step, adding that the current suspension of the draft is not a permanent solution. He criticized the stance of SPD faction leader Matthias Miersch, who has ruled out discussing the issue during this legislative period. “It doesn’t fit together with the presented situation” Badia said. “If we wait four years, we would be too late to implement the NATO’s capability goals.”
Badia emphasized the need to move beyond theoretical discussions and focus on implementation, citing the failure to increase the number of volunteers in the past four to six years. He also dismissed the argument that a lack of barracks and instructors would hinder the reintroduction of conscription, suggesting that investors could be sought to reactivate old barracks and provide training facilities, with the German military acting as a tenant.
Badia stressed the importance of a comprehensive national defense, citing the British saying that the army wins the battle and the nation the war. He suggested that, in the next step, a general service obligation could be introduced, including women, following the reintroduction of conscription for men. “We need to finally have a national discussion on how we as a nation can position ourselves to become deterrent” he said.
Hans-Peter Bartels, a former SPD politician and parliamentary defense commissioner, also called for a reevaluation of the situation. While advocating for a compromise solution, he proposed reintroducing conscription as a duty with priority given to volunteers. If not enough volunteers are available, a system similar to that in Denmark, where a lottery is used to select conscripts, could be implemented.
The current strength of the German military stands at around 181,500 active soldiers and 34,000 reservists who regularly participate in exercises, with a target of 250,000 active soldiers in the future, according to Bartels. He also emphasized the need to increase the size of the reserve. A period of military service could be reduced to 12 to 15 months, with a simplified medical examination process, such as a health status assessment at a family doctor, instead of the current process in the local military recruitment offices, he suggested.