'Get back what was scrapped': Most Germans want compulsory military service to return

New Delhi: A recent survey has suggested that the majority of Germans want to restore the compulsory military service, which was scrapped back in 2011. This comes as the war between Russia and Ukraine has dragged on for over a year.

It was conducted by a Paris based multinational market research and consulting company, Ipsos MORI group. 1000 eligible voters, aged between 18 and 75, were part of the survey.

The poll suggested that 61 per cent of the people were in favour of reintroducing compulsory military service. 43 per cent believed that the service should be applicable to all the genders. Meanwhile, 18 per cent said it should apply only to men, reported DW.

Strong support from older people

The survey showed that older people, who obviously weren’t going to face military service, voted in favour of the move.

People aged between 60-75 supported the move. 47 per cent of them believed that it should be introduced for all genders, and 18 per cent said it should be only for men.

Meanwhile, 39 per cent of the younger respondents, aged 18-39, supported this for all genders, and 21 per cent for men only.

Loud calls for reintroduction

German chancellor Olaf Scolz had earlier dismissed the idea of conscription. But other senior members of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) believe that this move can help to fix the shortfalls in military recruitment, according to The Times.

The idea remains popular amongst the members of SPD and the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Most of the neighbours of Germany now use at least a partial form of conscription, according to DW.

Some reintroduced it since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, while countries such as Denmark, Estonia and Finland, never got rid of it.

Latvia announced in September that it would establish a ‘state defence service’ in which men aged 18 to 27 would be able to serve in the military for 12 months or work for civilian agencies such as the national guard.

With inputs from agencies

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