US EditionGerman school students rally against army recruitment drive
About 3,000 students rallied in Berlin to oppose the government's plan to increase military forces from 185,000 to 260,000 by 2030, fearing conscription risks.
- On Thursday, thousands of German teenagers skipped school to protest a stepped-up military recruitment drive, with about 3,000 gathering at Berlin's Potsdamer Platz.
- The government this year started requiring 18-year-old men to fill questionnaires on military service interest and fitness, while women are asked but not compelled under current law.
- At the Berlin demonstration, protesters waved placards saying `We are not cannon fodder` and `Send Friedrich Merz to the front line!`, while several students voiced pacifist objections.
- The scale of demonstrations raises questions about meeting expansion targets without compulsory service, as the protests signal youth resistance that complicates voluntary recruitment for the Bundeswehr.
- Amid regional security concerns after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Germany has sought to build up forces, recalling West Germany's nearly 500,000 troops in the 1980s as a historical comparison.
62 Articles
62 Articles
With a nationwide school strike, young people are opposed to a possible return of compulsory military service. Young people would not be heard enough in decisions about their future.
The black-red coalition reserves the right to introduce a so-called "needs-wehrpflicht". This criticises the initiative "School strike against compulsory military service" – on Thursday tens of thousands of students nationwide joined the protest.
Thousands of children and adolescents have gone out to protest on the streets of the cities of Germany against the new law of military service, transmit DPA, adopted by Agerpres. "School Greva v. recruitment" attracted 50,000 participants at the national level, the organizers declared. After months of deliberation, the administration of Chancellor Friedrich Merz adopted a law at the end of ...
Several thousand teenagers demonstrated on Thursday 5 March against the voluntary military service established since January in Germany. This mobilization is aimed at the policy of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who wants to increase the strength of the Bundeswehr by 2030.
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