New German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called the abolition of compulsory military service in the country a wrong decision. “If you ask me as a citizen, as a politician, as a resident of this country, I will tell you that I think the ban on compulsory military service is wrong,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Tuesday.

He himself seems to want to raise a political discussion about lifting the ban and returning to military service. “As long as military service existed, there was a conscript in almost every yard, our army was one with society. At the moment, we are experiencing the alienation of a part of society from the state,” he said.

Pistorius is not the only one to raise this issue. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the ruling coalition’s FDP and chairman of the defense committee in the German parliament, also said that conscription could return, stressing that “the cancellation of conscription takes place during a period of peace. In case of tension or the need for protection, it can be activated again, ”said the German politician.

However, Christian Lindner seems to be finally closing the discussion. The FDP leader emphasized that this is a “debate about the ghosts of the past” and that the party is not going to raise the question of the return of military service, but only the question of “strengthening our army as a purely professional body.”