BERLIN, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- The German government has denied that it is planning to bring back military conscription in response to debate over the possibility of a new national form of civil service on Monday.
"Revoking the abolishment of conscription is not on the table at all," deputy government spokesperson Ulrike Demmer told press. Demmer's comments were made in reference to a public debate which was sparked by calls from some Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politicians to create a new type of binding and temporally-limited civil service for young Germans in lieu of the defunct military model.
The German defense ministry also opposes a return to the earlier model of conscription. Aside from the fact that the ministry only receives few applications for the around 12,000 volunteering positions, a spokesperson of the defense ministry argued that the past military reforms meant that the German armed forces were now geared towards professional missions which required several years of intense training.
Although suggestions remain vague as to what exactly the new conscription service would entail, the idea has been welcomed enthusiastically by some senior policymakers in Germany. Michael Kretschmer (CDU), governor of Saxony, told the newspaper BILD on Monday that a civil service could help Germany overcome "social and defense-related challenges."
Similarly, Lencke Steiner, regional faction leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) highlighted the merits of forcing German youth to temporarily subordinate their own interests to those of society as a whole. "Personally, I am in favor of a mandatory year, whether military or civil service. It is important to take responsibility at an early stage and learn to make sacrifices for others," Steiner told BILD.
At the same time, however, several commentators questioned the legal, financial and logistical feasibility of a mandatory civil service. CDU parliamentary delegate Roderich Kiesewetter warned in the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten that any resulting system could not be constructed to "replace jobs or be a blunt end in itself."
