Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds

Summary

Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, has voted to introduce voluntary military service, in a move aimed at boosting national defences after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.It marks a significant shift in Germany's approach to its military and follows Chancellor Friedrich Merz's push to create Europe's strongest conventional army.The change means that all 18-year-olds in Germany will be sent a questionnaire from January 2026 asking if they are interested and willing to join the armed forces. The form will be mandatory for men and voluntary for women.Students at schools across Germany have said they will join strikes in as many as 90 cities on Friday to protest against the move.Many young Germans either oppose the new law or are sceptical."We don't want to spend half a year of our lives locked up in barracks, being trained in drill and obedience and learning to kill," the organisers of the protests wrote in a statement posted on social media."War offers no prospects for the future and destroys our livelihoods."In Hamburg alone, about 1,500 people were expected to join the protests, and school head teachers warned parents not to take their children out of school for the day.The government says military service will be voluntary for as long as possible, but from July 2027, all 18-year-old men will have to take a medical exam to assess their fitness for possible military service.Universal medical examinations were necessary, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, so that in the event of an attack, Germany would not waste time determining "who is operationally capable as a homeland protector and who is not".Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, currently have around 182,000 service personnel, and Pistorius wants to increase that number by 20,000 over the next year.The long-term aim is to raise the number by the early 2030s to 260,000, supplemented by approximately 200,000 reservists, to meet new Nato force targets and strengthen Germany's defences.While the plan...