Overview
- Negotiators from Union and SPD had outlined a three-stage recruitment model that starts with voluntary service, uses a lottery to select men for medicals if targets fall short, and allows compulsory call-ups only with a Bundestag vote.
- Both sides canceled a joint press conference on Tuesday after SPD lawmakers balked, leaving the timetable for introducing the Wehrdienst-Modernisierungsgesetz this week uncertain.
- Defence Minister Boris Pistorius publicly distanced himself from the lottery proposal, warning against major changes to his draft before formal introduction and favoring broad mustering over selective draws.
- The plan draws on Denmark’s approach and includes a mandatory questionnaire for young men, with potential six-month service for selected conscripts if volunteer numbers are insufficient.
- A Union-commissioned opinion by ex-constitutional judge Udo Di Fabio deems a lottery potentially lawful, though past court rulings on ‘Wehrgerechtigkeit’ highlight legal risks; opposition parties attacked the idea as arbitrary and overly bureaucratic.