He German army search motivate a tens of thousands of young people to enroll, with the implementation of a voluntary military service which will provide them with a salary of 2,600 gross euros per month and other incentives, like him subsidized driving license. If the goals longed for, which are estimated at 60,000 soldiers For the next decade, mandatory recruitment will be carried out, although it will not materialize automatically, but rather with a new reform to be ratified by Parliament.
He conservative bloc of the chancellor Friedrich Merz and their social democratic partners They presented the consensus achieved, after months of disagreements on the creation of the corresponding bill. “The decisive point is voluntariness. And we believe that we will achieve it, as other European partners have done, by providing the necessary attractions,” said the Minister of Defense, the social democrat Boris Pistorius. “Germany must be able to respond to the threat from Russia and its commitments to NATO“he added.
From January 1los youths born in 2008 and who have turned 18 years old They will receive a survey in which they will express their willingness or not to enlist. Men are obliged to respond, while for women it is voluntary. A few months later, the potential soldiers a medical checkup to determine your physical and mental abilities.
“Last extreme”
Pistoriusaccording to the line of his Social Democratic Party (SPD)insisted that the return to mandatory military service is only contemplated as a “last extreme.” The head of the conservative parliamentary bloc, Jens Spahnemphasized the option of returning to a obligatory militarywhich in Germany It was formally suspended in 2011.
It will be up to the Ministry of Defense to prepare an updated report every six months on the contingent of active or reserve soldiers. He aim marked is to reach for 2035 los 280,000 soldiers. Germany currently has 181,000 active soldiers, plus 35,000 reservists.
Among the attractions with which Pistorius intends to motivate young people to enlist is, in addition to the salary – higher than the minimum interprofessional salary – the possibility of obtaining the driving license, for cars or trucks, to those who provide the service for at least one year. Professional training in military technology, IT and drone management will also be provided.
Reactivate a 70-year-old Army
He coalition agreement was reached coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Bundeswehrthe federal Army. Germany It was then protected by the four powers – the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union – that in 1945 had defeated Nazism. At the height of the Cold War, the West Germany had half a million soldierswhile the Eastern People’s Army, Moscow’s satellite, had about 180,000. In 2011, two long decades after German reunification, he joined the professional Army, but compulsory military service was left on hold to facilitate its reactivation in case of emergency.
The war of aggression on Ukraine and Vladimir’s expansionism Putin They have placed the country on the path to rapid rearmament and the search for solutions to its lack of personnel. Chancellor Merz’s goal is to provide Germany with “the most powerful Army in Europe.”
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