Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer presented her new voluntary service for the first time in the summer.
Now the starting shot should be given.
However, there is criticism from various quarters.
Berlin - "Your year for Germany": With this motto Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to advertise her new volunteer service for homeland security on Tuesday (April 6th).
This is intended to arouse young people's interest in a year-long service in the German Armed Forces.
At least that's the Defense Minister's plan.
The CDU politician's plan provides that the soldiers, after seven months of military training, will be available as reservists for homeland security for six years.
At the start of the new program, a total of 1,000 places are to be made available.
The ministry announced in advance that it was an offer before starting work, before starting studies and training, during a career change or during a chosen professional break.
Kramp-Karrenbauer: Starting signal for your new project "Your year for Germany"
There are already the first critical voices.
The Armed Forces Commissioner Eva Högl urges more realism when recruiting the new voluntary service.
"I often hear from soldiers that when recruiting personnel they convey a wrong image of the Bundeswehr and that everyday life is then very different," the SPD politician explained in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group on Tuesday.
“That does more harm than good,” Högl makes clear and hopes for “a realistic picture” when recruiting young people.
In the summer, Kramp-Karrenbauer announced their idea publicly for the first time, and the Ministry of Defense subsequently reported a positive response from the population.
For the 1000 places to be allocated, 9000 people would have registered.
20 percent of them are said to have been women.
Kramp-Karrenbauer has to take criticism - voluntary service is "taster course for the Bundeswehr"
The new program is intended to provide a “temporary, meaningful service” in the armed forces, then flexibly in the reserve.
The Ministry of Defense emphasized that the future soldiers should be used “after basic and special training, if possible in the regional living environment”.
Even then, criticism came from Caritas President Peter Neher.
In an interview with the ARD capital studio, he made it clear: “The Bundeswehr should call it what it is: It's a kind of taster course for the Bundeswehr.
Volunteering is the prerogative of civil society, not the state. "
List of rubric lists: © Jan Woitas
