2024-03-16 09:41:16
“Yes, our soldiers are first class and so is their motivation. But we lack everything. There are plenty of reasons to think about reactivate military service“, explained the so-called Defender of the Soldier of the German Parliament, the social democrat Eva Högl, when presenting her annual report. The deficits suffered by the German Armed Forces range from material to infrastructure, for which Hölg estimates it would be necessary to invest 50,000 million euros. That is, half of the extraordinary package announced by the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, following the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including support for the attacked country. The Armed Forces were obsolete due to the austerity line imposed with Angela Merkel in power –from 2005 to 2021– or even before. For the first time in decades, Germany will allocate over 2% of its GDP to Defense in 2024 and will meet the objective set among NATO partners.
But In addition to material needs, it must remedy the lack of personnel: In 2011, when military service was suspended after years of heated debates, there was talk of having a professional army with 200,000 members. That is, less than half of the 480,000 that, with slight fluctuations, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) had between 1960 and 1990, the year of reunification. Its counterpart, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) or communist Germany had 260,000. The total of 200,000 was the horizon estimated by a Germany more concentrated on international missions than on an eventual national defensive need. Not only has the figure not been reached, but it has been decreasing until it falls to 181,000 in 2023.
Nordic models
The Minister of Defense, the social democrat Boris Pistorius, is responsible not only for investing in technological innovation, weapons and infrastructure, to update dilapidated barracks – as detailed in its 171 pages of Högl’s report – but must also remedy the deficits in “military vocations.” The minister was on a tour of the Baltic and Nordic countries last week. On his return he insisted on his commitment to the so-called “Swedish model.” With this he was alluding to a reactivation of military service like the one he approved in Sweden in 2017, years after having suspended the recruitment of its 18-year-old men. Stockholm accelerated its plan following the invasion of Ukraine, but it does so in a selective way: it annually calls for 30,000 applicants – men and women -, of whom about 10,000, those considered most suitable for the job, join the professional Army. that end. Denmark, for its part, will extend military service from 4 to 11 months, which will also become mandatory for women.
Pistorius believes that Germany needs to increase its contingent by about 203,000 soldiers by 2030 and it is proposed to implement a system similar to the Swedish one. But Chancellor Scholz rejects it, presumably for not opening another thunder box in your coalition between social democrats, greens and liberals. Especially the environmentalist party is against reestablishing the military, an issue on which there is agreement of opinion with the liberals. That these two partners agree on something is exceptional in the Scholz government alliance.
Protection against air attacks
The debate surrounding the return to the military – which, instead of being abolished, was technically “suspended” to facilitate its reactivation – has been precipitated by the growing fear of Russia and calls for European rearmament from successive Western countries. 52% of Germans are in favor of reactivating it, according to a survey by ‘Stern’ magazine.
Added to this concern is the lack of a bunker system to protect against a hypothetical air attack. There is also a focus on a Nordic country, Finland, which has recently joined NATO, as Sweden has now done. Both countries have been investing in Defense for decades. Finland, with 5.5 million inhabitants, only has an effective and highly technical Army, but also a network of bunkers sufficient to protect the population. In Helsinki alone there are 50 bunkers and tunnels, with the capacity to house 200,000 people 30 meters underground, to which are added other shelters for a total of 900,000 citizens. There are about 600 shelters set up throughout Germany, although they are neither as underground nor as well equipped as the Finnish ones, the Association of German Cities and Municipalities warned last week. It is estimated that could properly protect some 500,000 citizensin a country with 84 million inhabitants.
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