In addition to potential effects on Germany's economic, energy, and foreign policies, the results of the Sept. 27 national elections raise questions about the future of Germany's longstanding practice of military conscription. Although Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) continues to support compulsory military service more than any other major German party, her preferred new coalition partner, the quasi-libertarian Free Democratic Party (FDP), opposes it.
Unlike most other NATO countries, Germany stubbornly adheres to the principle of compulsory military service. At present, all male German citizens are subject to nine months of conscription in the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces) when they reach the age of 18. As a result, the 250,000-member Bundeswehr has both long-term careerists -- mostly officers, noncommissioned officers, and other professionals and volunteers -- and approximately 60,000 short-term conscript soldiers. ...
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