The left has sharply criticized a possible mandatory screening for young people. The proposal of the military commissioners is “the wrong way”.
The left has sharply criticized the push by the military commissioner Eva Högl (SPD) for a mandatory examination for all young people. “The compulsory screening demanded by the military commissioner would be a step towards the militarization of society,” said the party’s federal director, Tobias Bank, on Friday to the AFP news agency. “There is no real threat that would justify such interventions in young people’s right to self-determination.”
According to Bank, the German Armed Forces not only get “free opportunities to recruit young people” with mandatory screening. This is also “effectively a preparatory measure for the reintroduction of conscription,” he criticized. “Instead of a militarization of society, we need a demilitarization of foreign policy,” Bank said, emphasizing his party’s stance. It was “the wrong way to align society with military conflicts, for example through mandatory medical examinations or advertising the Bundeswehr in schools.”
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces had recommended the reintroduction of patterning in the discussion about recruiting personnel for the Bundeswehr. “You could, like in Sweden, invite an entire year of young people for the Bundeswehr to be drafted,” Högl said in an interview with t-online. She linked the initiative with the idea of a mandatory year of service for young people in the civilian or military sectors. However, Högl ruled out a return to conscription. You can read the entire interview with the military commissioner here.
