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Dec 9, 2025
German MPs rubberstamp military service plan amid school pupil protests
The Guardian
All 18-year-old men to be screened for suitability for armed forces, but proposal falls short of conscription
The German parliament has rubberstamped a new model for military service that aims to boost its armed forces, as thousands of school pupils demonstrated across the country against the plans.
The change will include the obligatory screening of all 18-year-old men to gauge their suitability to serve in the military from 1 January, but does not include conscription, as favoured by some conservative politicians.
If the new model fails to pull in enough recruits, parliament will be compelled to discuss the reintroduction of conscription, the defence minister, Boris Pistorius, told the Bundestag.
Pupils missed classes to take part in climate protest-style "school strike" demonstrations against the legislation in 90 towns and cities, despite education authorities' warnings the abstention could affect their end of year grades.
"I'm striking against conscription and in opposition to the rearmament that's taking place, not least as I don't think the government is doing enough to secure peace through diplomatic means," said Alicia, a 17-year-old taking part in a demonstration in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
MPs addressed pupils' concerns that young people's futures were being put at risk amid pressure on anyone born from 2008 to join up.
Siemtje Möller, of the SPD, junior partners in coalition with chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, pushed back against what she referred to as the "pure populist" message of the protest. "We are neither deciding today that you will be obliged to serve in the armed forces, nor that we will be drawing lots to send you to Ukraine as cannon fodder," she said. "That is pure populism, or simply nonsense."
She expressed the sentiment building over recent weeks that a surge in interest in the German armed forces will ensure enough volunteers will be found to boost numbers to a total of 460,000, consisting of 260,000 active soldiers and 200
