German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius believes that, taking into account the security situation and the needs of the army, Germany should consider introducing mandatory military service, AFP notes.

Boris Pistorius on a German Leopard 2 A6 tankPhoto: Ann-Marie Utz / AFP / Profimedia

“We have to ask ourselves who will defend this country when things get serious,” Boris Pistorius said Wednesday during a budget debate in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, Agerpres reported.

“We cannot ignore this discussion,” he said, without touching on the topic of military service. “Each model needs a political majority and a society that supports it,” the defense minister continued.

In addition, he confirmed the need to strengthen the Bundeswehr, the German military, and thereby increase defense spending.

On the other hand, the minister welcomed the fact that, for the first time in a decade, Germany has met the NATO target, according to which member states must allocate at least 2% of their budget to defense.

With a federal defense budget of a record 72 billion euros, this is 2.1%, Boris Pistorius said.

“It’s going in the right direction and adapted to the gravity of the situation,” he said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.

At the end of 2023, the minister promised to make the Bundeswehr “the backbone of collective defense in Europe” and presented new directives. The latest directives of the German army are dated 2011.

In its guidelines, the government insists that the Bundeswehr can also participate in the international arena, as it has done in the Western Balkans and the Sahel region.

Military spending was 5% of Germany’s GDP in the 1960s, then fell below 2% from 1990 and the collapse of the USSR to just 1.3% in 2021.

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