{"id":346262,"date":"2025-08-15T10:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346262\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T10:13:18","slug":"pressure-mounts-on-germanys-merz-to-restore-military-conscription-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346262\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure mounts on Germany\u2019s Merz to restore military conscription \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>R\u00f6ttgen accused Pistorius, who belongs to the SPD, of \u201conly implementing one side of the compromise by focusing solely on voluntarism,\u201d without clear targets or an automatic mechanism to switch to conscription if volunteer numbers fall short. \u201cThat won\u2019t work \u2014 there must be mandatory improvements,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>His disagreement is echoed by other Christian Democrats. Multiple parliamentary advisers told POLITICO they doubt the bill, as drafted, could win the political backing needed to pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the last week of July, senior figures from both coalition groupings held a private meeting to test the waters for changing the language of the bill. On the conservative side were R\u00f6ttgen, Bundestag Defense Committee Chair Thomas R\u00f6wekamp and defense working group lead Thomas Erndl. Representing the SPD were Pistorius, deputy parliamentary group leader Siemtje M\u00f6ller, budget lawmaker Andreas Schwarz and defense ministry parliamentary undersecretary Nils Schmid.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/13212434-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7023117\"  \/>The bill is Defense Minister Boris Pistorius\u2019 attempt to address the Bundeswehr\u2019s chronic personnel shortage without fully reintroducing mandatory conscription, which Germany suspended in 2011. | Filip Singer\/EPA<\/p>\n<p>According to two participants from the conservative side, Pistorius showed frustration at the Christian Democratic push to alter the bill, firmly rejecting their ideas and defending the Bundestag trigger clause.<\/p>\n<p>The SPD\u2019s position, Schwarz later told POLITICO, is rooted in the principle that the Bundeswehr is a \u201cparliamentary army\u201d \u2014 meaning the legislature, not the executive, must make the call on introducing compulsory service. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a decision the parliament has to take,\u201d Schwarz said. \u201cIf targets aren\u2019t met and the threat level is high, then parliament must decide and, if necessary, tighten the law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"R\u00f6ttgen accused Pistorius, who belongs to the SPD, of \u201conly implementing one side of the compromise by focusing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[7668,473,2000,299,1945,1824,2597,21463,122878],"class_list":{"0":"post-346262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-boris-pistorius","9":"tag-defense","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-friedrich-merz","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-military-recruitment","16":"tag-norbert-rottgen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115032254497560119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}