At the beginning of March, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) defence policy spokesman Florian Hahn called for the reintroduction of compulsory military service before the end of the year.
“We can’t just sit back and watch as the world around us becomes more insecure,” he told German tabloid Bild.
The main point point of conscription is to build up a large number of reservists who will require minimal training compared to fresh recruits when called up in case of a war. This is especially important when a smaller country is attacked by a larger one, because in that case, there is precious little time to react, and no country can afford a standing military even remotely capable of defending it against a much larger opponent.