Overview

• On ARD’s “Hart aber Fair,” CDU politician Norbert Röttgen backed a questionnaire‑led volunteer service starting in 2026 with the option for parliament to consider compulsory measures if too few enlist.
• Röttgen cast readiness as a moral duty and insisted responses to provocations be coordinated within NATO, a point sharpened by recent Russian fighter‑jet incidents over Estonia.
• Bundeswehr deputy inspector general Nicole Schilling said alliance air‑defence procedures are long established, acknowledged drone‑defence gaps, and confirmed new purchases this year of armed small drones and counter‑drone tools such as net launchers.
• Die Linke’s Ines Schwerdtner warned that a voluntary pathway could slide toward coercion over time and argued many youths consider the Bundeswehr mainly due to limited options.
• Journalist Özge İnan denounced a proposed screening questionnaire as intrusive, while Röttgen countered that no final form exists yet, and other guests rejected claims the force skews disadvantaged by noting many recruits with above‑average educational credentials.