MWith Russia's attack on Ukraine, war has returned to Europe. The attack was also a wake-up call for Germany – calls for Berlin to take its defense more into its own hands are being heard again. The Bundeswehr not only needs more armaments, but also more personnel.
In retrospect, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius describes the suspension of compulsory military service as a “mistake,” but the minister does not want to go back to the old regulations. The ministry is therefore examining various models from abroad. The FAZ provides an overview.
Sweden
These days, around 110,000 young people born in 2006 are receiving mail in Sweden, both men and women. They all have to fill out a questionnaire and say whether they are interested in military service. All those who have declared themselves fit for military service are mustered out. In March they will find out whether they will be drafted. So far this has affected between 5,000 and 6,000 people every year, most of whom had previously expressed an interest in the military. You can expect a service of six to 15 months. Three months of basic training is followed by up to twelve months of position training.
Sweden also massively reduced its defense spending after 1990 and suspended compulsory military service in 2010. But there was a quick shortage of young people, with only a little more than 2,000 young people volunteering each year. After Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, the Swedish government reassessed the situation and reintroduced conscription in 2017. Today there is a compulsory service, but – and this is the core of the “Swedish model” – it works predominantly on a voluntary basis. This is what drives the acceptance of this model, in which the German Defense Minister and the Military Commissioner Eva Högl have expressed interest.
Sweden's upcoming NATO accession and its geographical location in the Baltic Sea region are significantly increasing the force's personnel requirements. The Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish Armed Forces, Micael Bydén, called for around 10,000 conscripts to be trained every year, which is a good ten percent of the age cohort. The general director of the Swedish National Service Authority, Christiana Malm, also recalled that it is a “duty”. You can no longer take “interest, motivation and will” into account. “We need more people to talk about conscription,” demanded Malm.
Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson recently did this and addressed his fellow citizens with a migrant background. The Swedish passport makes a lot of things easier and gives many people protection, he said. But anyone who is not prepared to defend Sweden's democracy and freedom should not be a Swedish citizen. Representatives of the government and the armed forces recently warned of the Russian danger. Preparation for war cannot go fast enough, said Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin.
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