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»Voting with your feet«: The number of conscientious objectors in Germany has risen massively this year
Photo: Tobias Hase / picture alliance / dpa
The number of conscientious objectors in Germany has risen significantly this year, but overall it remains at a low level.
This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Defense to a request from the Defense Committee of the Bundestag, which was available to the AFP news agency.
The number of refusals increased from 209 in 2021 as a whole to 810 in the first eight months of 2022.
According to the announcement, the number of refusals from the ranks of active servicewomen and men fell from 176 to 136 in a year-on-year comparison, while reservists and especially those who have not served, i.e. those who have not done military service but are interested in a job trained as a reservist increased very significantly.
There was an increase from 10 to 190 reservists. 484 applications had already been received by the end of August of this year for those not in service, after 23 applications in the previous year.
All recognized conscientious objectors could invoke their status as conscientious objectors both in the event of a reintroduction of conscription and in cases of tension and defence.
The Ministry of Defense did not explain the reasons for the development in the communication to the committee.
The left-wing security politician Sevim Dagdelen spoke of a "vote with your feet" that was promoted by the federal government's strategy after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The figures "also reflect concerns about the consequences of the federal government's military escalation course in Ukraine," said Dagdelen.
sak/AFP
