Chief of Bundestag defense committee seeks mobilizing 900,000 Germans
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Strack-Zimmermann says that Bundeswehr has for decades failed to keep track of German soldiers who left active duty.
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German soldiers holding Germany's national flag attend the opening ceremony of the joint multinational military exercise 'Noble Partner 2017' at the military base of Vaziani, outside Tbilisi, on July 30, 2017 (AFP)
The head of the Bundestag Defense Committee called for the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of German military reservists, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin was "training his people for war" with the West.
"We propose activating the approximately 900,000 reservists we have in Germany. But first, we need to register them all. The Bundeswehr has for decades failed to keep track of soldiers who have left active service," Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said in an interview with German media group Funke released on Saturday.
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She said that Bundeswehr currently lacks the capabilities and infrastructure to train half a million new people annually. But "If we could recruit just half the [900,000] reservists with their relevant expertise, that would be an incredible asset," Strack-Zimmermann said.
Der Spiegel reported last month, citing a defense ministry document, that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was considering reinstating military conscription in the country ahead of the presidential elections in 2025. Military duty was suspended in Germany in 2011.
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High ambitions, low funds
Berlin has been declaring goals to modernize its military for the past two years since the Ukraine war started, yet it has failed to meet any funding objectives.
In June 2022, the German parliament supported a proposal put forward by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to establish a dedicated fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr.
The initiative was meant to position the German army as the largest regular army in Europe following a modernization effort.
However, the government fell short of achieving its objectives due to an economic downturn and financial obligations toward Ukraine and other international commitments.
Furthermore, Pistorius warned in March that Bundeswehr was facing a deficit between 4.5 billion to 6 billion euros ($4.9-$6.5 billion) in the 2025 Army budget.
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Scholz's plans prompted questions about how this money will be used and whether other vital industries will suffer as a result. Since then, Germany's armaments industry has been buzzing about the government's impending spending spree.
Some 600 public figures including politicians, religious figures, and artists signed an online appeal slamming what they called an "arms race", and warned that the spending will lead to cuts in other sectors.
