German CDU mulls return of military service

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, still the current favorite to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor, has cautiously come out in favor of opening the debate on reintroducing national military service.

“Something is in danger of being lost without which a society cannot continue forever,” the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) told the Funke Media Group. “For me the community within the population is the priority.”

She added that she had heard much support for the idea of national service in her “listening tour” of grassroots CDU branches that followed her election as the new party leader. “I share many of these thoughts, and I think it’s very important that we should discuss an obligatory national service in Germany,” she said.

Germany suspended military conscription in 2011, partly in an attempt to “professionalize” the armed forces, but has occasionally struggled to make a military career attractive enough to keep Bundeswehr recruitment numbers up among young people.

Via DW