(de-news.net) Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has suggested including a conditional conscription mechanism into the next Military Service Act in response to the existing levels of volunteer military service. He maintained that since it would be impractical to start a fresh legislative procedure at that moment, there must be a legal contingency in place to quickly trigger conscription if voluntary enrollment proved inadequate. Before the summer break, the new bill is expected to be discussed and adopted by the Cabinet.

Lars Klingbeil, the chairman of the SPD, opposed a return to the old-fashioned universal conscription system but backed plans for mandatory service as a backup. He suggested incentives like free driver’s license programs as a way to increase the Bundeswehr’s attractiveness to younger audiences. The number of troops has been decreasing even though NATO has called for an augmentation of up to 60,000 active soldiers.

Chancellery Chief Thorsten Frei (CDU) favored a systematic “process” for conscription, emphasizing volunteer work while establishing quantifiable cutoff points beyond which mandatory measures would be implemented.

Meanwhile, other SPD leaders, like as Tim Klüssendorf, designated General-Secretars of the Social Democratic Party and Rolf Miersch, faction leader of the SPD in the German Bundestag, reiterated their support for a voluntary framework in the meantime, pointing out that the coalition agreement does not call for the reinstatement of conscription. Klüssendorf emphasized that attempts to attract people voluntarily should be evaluated after four years.

Markus Söder (CSU), the minister-president of Bavaria, on the other hand, reaffirmed demands for the reinstatement of conscription, claiming that voluntary service may not be sufficient to fulfill NATO and national defense commitments.