Just over a week after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a new volunteer military service, Germany has approved a set of measures to restructure and expand the country’s armed forces contingent. On Friday, the Bundestag, parliament’s lower house, voted in favor of a bill that reintroduces a voluntary military service program for 18-year-olds and paves the way for a conscription model if conscription targets are not met. The measures are being introduced at a time of rising tensions in Europe – an increase since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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The approved text stipulates that, as of January 2026, all 18-year-olds will receive a questionnaire asking about their interest in serving in the army. Completion will be mandatory for men and voluntary for women. From July 2027, men will also have to undergo mandatory medical examinations at the age of 18 to assess their suitability for potential military service. According to the government, this step is necessary to avoid delays in identifying recruits in the event of an attack.
The bill was approved by 323 votes to 272 with one abstention, a result considered a relatively strong majority. But the vote took place amid protests by students who announced strikes in up to 90 cities to show their opposition to the measure. In a statement on social media, organizers said they did not want to “spend half a year locked in barracks, training in discipline and obedience and learning how to kill.” In Hamburg, about 1,500 people were expected to take to the streets.
The German government says the model will remain voluntary for as long as possible. The plan includes incentives such as a starting salary of €2,600 per month (R$16,000), and €450 (R$2,700) above the current value. However, if new conscription levels are not reached, the possibility remains of resorting to so-called Bedarfswehrpflicht, i.e. compulsory conscription on the basis of need, by voting on an additional law in Parliament.
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The goal is to increase the strength of the Bundeswehr, currently about 180,000 to 182,000 soldiers, to 260,000 by 2035, as well as forming a reserve of about 200,000 members. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius intends to increase the number of military personnel by 20,000 soldiers next year. According to the government, the expansion is necessary to achieve new goals set by NATO, the Western military alliance, and to strengthen German defence.
Germany suspended compulsory military service in 2011, under Angela Merkel’s government, making conscription completely voluntary. Since the end of the Cold War, the country has been reducing military spending, which has been consistently less than 2% of GDP, while taboos left over from the Nazi period remain in society.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has committed to rebuilding the armed forces and transforming them into the strongest conventional army in Europe, claims that the new geopolitical reality requires profound changes. External pressure has also increased: President Donald Trump’s government has asked NATO member states to boost their defense investments. With this latest decision, Germany joins, in addition to France, Denmark and Latvia, which have also reviewed their military service models since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The vote on military service took place on the same day that the Bundestag was considering a pension reform project, which would preserve the value of public pensions until 2031. The proposal is central to the coalition agreement between Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats, who govern with a narrow majority of 12 votes. The measure has faced resistance from young MPs from the ruling party, who claim that the plan is financially unsustainable and will burden future generations. The abstention announced by the left-wing Die Linke party narrowed the margin needed for approval, averting a potential political crisis.