Overview
- SPD leader and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil said all options remain open, including a lottery or a return to nationwide screening to boost troop numbers.
- Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and large parts of the SPD rejected a lottery proposal that had been floated by Union and SPD defense specialists.
- The SPD parliamentary group blocked an expert-level agreement, leaving the fallback mechanisms for the initially voluntary system unresolved.
- Youth organization Jusos Niedersachsen opposed any plan to select recruits by chance and called for internal reforms to make Bundeswehr service more attractive.
- Legal scholars underscored that the Basic Law guarantees the right to conscientious objection to armed service, even in wartime.