BERLIN — Germany’s grand coalition is headed for a fight over whether the country’s effort to increase the size of its military should include the option of compulsory military service.
The conservative Christian Democrats are sparring with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) within the ruling coalition over the shape of the country’s new military draft law, the Military Service Modernization Act, which is set to be presented in Cabinet on Aug. 27.
For now, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is staying above the fray, but some senior Christian Democrats are hoping to drag him in.
The bill is Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ attempt to address the Bundeswehr’s chronic personnel shortage without fully reintroducing mandatory conscription, which Germany suspended in 2011.
Under the proposal, all draft-age men would be required to register and undergo a screening process, but only a targeted number would be called up for service. Women could volunteer.
The government hopes to recruit about 5,000 additional voluntary soldiers each year, with service terms of up to 23 months. Crucially, compulsory service would only kick in if parliament votes for it in a separate decision.
Conservatives want a tougher law
The Christian Democrats want the law to go further by introducing a mandatory service year, which would include compulsory military service as one option, alongside civilian alternatives like work in hospitals or schools.
They also reject the idea of requiring a parliamentary vote to trigger conscription in a crisis, a prerequisite in the legislation.
“If conscription is only activated in a heightened military crisis, it becomes a reaction tool rather than a deterrent,” conservative foreign and defense policy lead Norbert Röttgen told WELT. “It would come too late, lose public acceptance and miss its actual purpose. What is a conscript supposed to achieve when the crisis is already here?”
Röttgen accused Pistorius, who belongs to the SPD, of “only implementing one side of the compromise by focusing solely on voluntarism,” without clear targets or an automatic mechanism to switch to conscription if volunteer numbers fall short. “That won’t work — there must be mandatory improvements,” he said.
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.
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 Röttgen, Bundestag Defense Committee Chair Thomas Röwekamp and defense working group lead Thomas Erndl. Representing the SPD were Pistorius, deputy parliamentary group leader Siemtje Möller, budget lawmaker Andreas Schwarz and defense ministry parliamentary undersecretary Nils Schmid.
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.
The SPD’s position, Schwarz later told POLITICO, is rooted in the principle that the Bundeswehr is a “parliamentary army” — meaning the legislature, not the executive, must make the call on introducing compulsory service.
“That’s a decision the parliament has to take,” Schwarz said. “If targets aren’t met and the threat level is high, then parliament must decide and, if necessary, tighten the law.”
Few options left for change
Schwarz said the SPD’s focus on a voluntary model is about attracting people who genuinely want to serve, rather than compelling them from the start.
“We want people who want to be there,” he said. Volunteers, he argued, are more likely to finish their training and commit to longer service. “If you begin with compulsion, you create resistance,” he added. The aim, he stressed, is to make service “so attractive that we reach our targets without mandatory service.”
Privately, conservatives are exploring other pressure points to change the bill. Two parliament insiders informed on legislative negotiations told POLITICO that Röttgen sent an email to Chancellery chief Thorsten Frei, Merz’s right-hand man, to flag the parliamentary group’s demands on military conscription.
The compressed timeline means that if no breakthrough comes before Aug. 27, the conservatives’ only chance to rewrite the bill will be in the Bundestag this fall. That’s when legislation goes through several readings and committee debates, giving lawmakers the power to insert changes before the final vote.
Röwekamp is already bracing for that scenario. “No law leaves the Bundestag the way it arrived,” he told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast. “We have a proposal, and we have changes we want. If that doesn’t work beforehand, it has to go into parliamentary consultations.”
Another possibility is to resolve the dispute in the coalition committee — a small group of top leaders from both parties which meets behind closed doors to settle policy fights. Decisions there carry political weight, but are not legally binding until the full government or parliament signs off.
Gordon Repinski contributed to this report.
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