Jusos meet Pistorius halfway: SPD averts military service dispute

Opinions within the SPD on mandatory military service, if necessary, are widely divided. Negotiations at the party conference lasted for hours. In the end, Defense Minister Pistorius was spared a serious defeat.

The SPD has averted a potentially serious dispute over the option of mandatory military service under Defense Minister Boris Pistorius's plans. After hours of crisis talks, the Young Socialists (Jusos) amended an initiative motion at the party conference that would have rejected the inclusion of compulsory military service in the planned bill.

"We do not want any legally activatable option for conscripts before all measures for voluntary recruitment have been exhausted. We want to enable measures for the screening, registration, and military monitoring of young men liable for military service," the adopted text now states.

Juso leader Philipp Türmer told Pistorius that both had to do quite a bit of exercise. "But we managed it in a few hours, and I think that's a good sign," Türmer said.

Swedish model as a model

The SPD now supports a new military service "based on voluntary participation and modeled on the Swedish military service model." By increasing the attractiveness of military service, the necessary expansion of the reserve and the Bundeswehr as a whole should be achieved.

The Bundeswehr must therefore achieve a personnel strength of at least 60,000 additional men and women and 200,000 reservists.

Given the security situation and the expectations of allies, it is recognized that the Bundeswehr needs adequate personnel. "We must be able to react when the security situation or the needs of the Bundeswehr require it."

The party conference also controversially debated the recently agreed NATO target of increasing defense spending to five percent of economic output. Critics warned on Saturday against restrictions on funding for areas such as social welfare and climate protection, and against a global arms race. Pistorius was forced to speak out to defend the five percent target.