The German Liberals propose to reactivate 900 thousand reservists: “We must be able to respond to a Russian attack”

Faced with the Russian advance in Ukraine, the German FDP MP Agnes-Strack Zimmermann, head of the parliamentary Defense commission and leading candidate for the Liberals in the European elections, proposed the activation of hundreds of thousands of reservists. “Putin is preparing his people for war against the West. We must become capable of defending ourselves as much as possible […]

Faced with the Russian advance in Ukrainethe deputy of Fdp German Agnes-Strack Zimmermannhead of the parliamentary Defense commission and leading candidate for the Liberals in the European elections, proposed the activation of hundreds of thousands of reservists. “Putin he is preparing his people for war against the West. We must become capable of defending ourselves as quickly as possible, mobilize, register and activate 900 thousand reservists in Germany,” he told the group’s newspapers. Funke. “The Russian attack against us has already begun,” she stressed, referring to cyber war, espionage And flows of migrants: “We must be clear that the war in Ukraine affects us directly.” If Putin is successful, Strack-Zimmermann’s analysis, “his incursions will continue” extending to Georgia, Moldova And Baltic countries.

The German army has not registered soldiers who have left active service for years. If only half of them with their wealth of experience were recruited, Germany would gain incredibly, according to the liberal MP. You therefore openly invited companies to give reservists among their employees the necessary time to resume service. For her, this too should be part of the changing times announced by the chancellor Olaf Scholz which for two years allocated an extraordinary loan of 100 billion at Armed forces.

On the other hand, already a few weeks ago – reports the ARD – the president of the reservists’ association, Patrick Sensburghad suggested systematically recording the health and readiness status of all ex-soldiers and allowing them to resume progressive exercises in order to plan their distribution in territorial defense tasks. All former soldiers would be included, whether they had only completed their old military service or those who had served for a long time. However, ex-military personnel are excluded Volksarmee of the old one DDR.

The plan to mobilize the reservists then goes in parallel with the repeated voices in favor of a limited return to the draftraised among others at the last congress of the Cdubut also to whom the Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (SPD) would be working. A project born from the observation that the German army would be numerically insufficient to also guarantee the contingents of men and means of rapid intervention envisaged by the Born.

Agnes Strack-Zimermann’s proposal follows the raises also made by United States, France, Great Britain and Germany itself against the Russian invasion. Ukraine, they said, will also be able to use weapons supplied by the Federal Republic on Russian territory to defend itself. Scholz, after having already broken one barrier by supplying weapons to a nation at war, then crossed another.