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Christian Lindner at Bellevue Palace
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IMAGO/M.
Popow / IMAGO/Metodi Popow
FDP leader Christian Lindner spoke up in the discussion about a return to conscription - with a clear announcement.
“Conscription is not at all an issue for the FDP.
This is a ghost discussion.
All power must be concentrated on strengthening the Bundeswehr as a highly professional army," Lindner told the dpa news agency.
The young generation also “lost so much through the pandemic that there should be no speculation about a new compulsory service”.
Lindner also referred to the shortage of skilled workers in all areas.
He said, "Keeping a whole year away from education and work would do great harm."
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann had previously pointed out the far-reaching consequences for the economy and society in the event of a return to military service.
The public discussion about this question is "partly not serious," said the chair of the defense committee.
The worsening of the shortage of skilled workers is just one point.
However, Strack-Zimmermann also emphasized that the end of compulsory military service only applies in times of peace.
"In the event of tension or defense, it can be activated again," she had told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
A year ago she was strictly against it.
Meanwhile, Strack-Zimmermann thinks: "A simple yes or no is not enough."
Last week, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) described the suspension of conscription by the black-yellow federal government in 2011 as a mistake.
The left also criticize the debate
The left criticized the discussions about conscription.
"Not a day goes by without some representative from the SPD, FDP, Greens or Union coming around the corner with a new escalation proposal: tank deliveries, fighter jets, now the reintroduction of conscription," said the first parliamentary manager of the left Group, Jan Korte.
Suspending conscription was not a mistake, but a civilizational advance.
sak/dpa