German Public Boosts Defense Spending & Swaying Towards Conscription: A Sparked Debate
Expanded budget for military equipment?
Wanna know what's hot in Germany? A whopping 70% of its residents approve of the planned hike in defense expenditure led by the feds. That's right, peeps! The majority of us Germans think the increase is the right move Even more so in West Germany compared to the East!
The whole NATO gang's doing it, and we're down with that! But not everyone's a fan – a quarter of us Germans aren't, to be precise.
When you look at the parties, supporters of the Union and the Greens mostly approve, with the SPD coming close. Interestingly, even. supporters of the Left & the AfD follow suit, though not as enthusiastically as others 😜
Conscription: Old School or Redux? 🤔
Now, here's where things get juicy! In the realm of conscription, around 59% of us Germans click "yes, please" for a return to the compulsory military service. Once upon a time, our defense ministry outright assumed that Germany would need anywhere between 50,000 to 60,000 more soldiers for the Bundeswehr [💥you heard that right!].
But here's the kicker: the conscription gloves aren't coming off just yet! Defense Minister Boris Pistorius shared his thoughts and hinted at a possible revisit. But why the hesitation? " Our barracks & training aren't geared for it!" Boris cried out, disappointed. So, right now, it's a voluntary gig. 💁
But, isn't our voluntary approach already struggling to meet the troop numbers needed? The government's looking into it, naturally. 👀
Wanna dig deeper? Here's a snippet of our recent convo with Boris Pistorius on RTL Germany's Early Start show. He sure did put the voluntary military service back on the table 🔥
The data did not make it to the easter bunny this year; instead, we got it courtesy of Forsa, a popular market and opinion research institute, collected on behalf of RTL Germany from June 3-4, 2023. A humble 1000 respondents were involved.
Forsa lets you in on more of their findings in case you're still curious.
TL;DR? Germans appear to be onboard with a hike in defense spending and leans towards mandatory military service. The government's taking things slow, though. Can't rush capacities, after all! 💸🔥⚔️
Frustrated Boris: My barracks and training aren't set up for conscription at the moment, so I can't make it happen now! We need to beef up our capacities before we go back to the old way.
Sources: ntv.de | hvo
- Bundeswehr
- Boris Pistorius
- Conscription
- Surveys
- RTL/ntv Trendbarometer
- The community policy debate in Germany is influenced by the increasing defense spending and discussions about reintroducing conscription, which are contentious issues within the politics domain and general news.
- The proposed hike in defense expenditure, conscription, and employment policies within the Bundeswehr have sparked a significant amount of debate in Germany, with a majority of citizens expressing support for these changes, but concerns about the readiness of existing barracks and training facilities for conscription persist.
