By Ayhan Simsek
BERLIN (AA) - More than 50,000 German students walked out of classes Thursday in a nationwide protest against a new military service law.
The 'School Strike Against Conscription Initiative' organized demonstrations in nearly 150 cities, including Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Munich and Stuttgart.
'Today we made it clear: The movement against conscription will remain and grow,' said Lisa Alexander, a spokesperson for the movement. 'The protests will continue until we have overturned the Military Service Modernization Act, the introduction of conscription and other compulsory services,' she said.
Students carried signs and banners with slogans, including 'We will not die for your wars', 'Hands off our future' and 'The rich want war, the youth want the future.' Other signs read, 'Make peace great again' and 'Stop the war in the Middle East.'
The law, which took effect at the start of the year, requires all males who turn 18 to complete a questionnaire assessing their fitness, qualifications and interest in military service. Starting mid-next year, all 18-year-olds will be required to attend medical examinations.
While the law maintains a voluntary system, protesters argue it represents the first step toward reintroducing compulsory military service.
They contend that the questionnaire-based registry will facilitate future conscription efforts. The movement's demands include strengthening legal protections for conscientious objection and requiring schools to provide counseling on conscientious objector rights to all graduating students.
The Defense Ministry aims to increase its force from 184,000 active troops to more than 260,000 by 2035 to meet NATO commitments. That requires 20,000 recruits each year, and many analysts said it would be difficult to achieve that goal through a voluntary system alone.
If voluntary recruitment proves insufficient, parliament would have to revisit the law and could consider demand-based or even mandatory conscription.
