The Defense Minister praises the progress in increasing the Bundeswehr's personnel and continues to rely on volunteers. He wants to increase efforts to encourage women to serve.
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius continues to rely on voluntary measures to expand the Bundeswehr's personnel. "In October we were the largest Bundeswehr since 2013 with over 190,000 soldiers. All volunteers!" explained the SPD politician in the Deutschlandfunk interview of the week. Pistorius was confident that the personnel goals could be achieved without conscription. However, he qualified: “But of course I can’t look into the future.” It could be that the recruitment curve will drop in two or three years. “Then we have to react!”
The minister also announced new efforts to attract more women to serve in the Bundeswehr. In terms of numbers, the Bundeswehr is a “man’s shop,” and that won’t change any time soon, Pistorius told the newspapers of the Funke media group. "But we want to have more women in the Bundeswehr. It is particularly strong when it covers the breadth of our society." The minister plans to present the results of a dark field study next week on the recently increased number of reported violations of sexual self-determination in the Bundeswehr.
The use of so-called knockout drops should be punished more severely in the future. The Bundestag decided this on Friday. Accordingly, perpetrators who used narcotics during a robbery or rape should expect at least five years in prison in the future. So far they have faced three years in prison. By legally equating knockout drops with weapons, a sexual offense after the victim has been stunned can now be considered a “severe form” of assault, which results in a higher sentence.
Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig is calling for a differentiated look at the current youth protests in Germany. "The vast majority of the demonstrators were peaceful. And it is the young people's right to demonstrate for their concerns," said Hubig in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
The SPD wants to avert the planned cuts in housing benefit during the budget discussions in the Bundestag. According to a preliminary report, the SPD politician and chairman of the Bundestag Committee for Labor and Social Affairs told the Augsburger Allgemeine: “As far as the planned housing benefit cuts are concerned, I assume that they will be cleared away at the adjustment meeting next week.”
Despite the Union's decision on Ilse Aigner as the candidate for the federal presidential election, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) still does not mention her name. "I have made a decision. I think it is now time to elect a woman as Federal President."
Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig believes that hundreds of thousands of AfD emails published on the Internet could help pave the way to banning the party. The SPD politician spoke in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung in favor of a federal-state working group that would examine the chances of success of a ban procedure.
Employees of a Catholic institution do not automatically have to expect a job loss if they leave the church. If church institutions impose religious requirements on the job, these must apply to all employees with comparable tasks, the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt decided.
With the votes of the black-red coalition, the Bundestag has passed the first part of a driving license reform in Germany. Driving schools should be relieved of bureaucracy. “Lay training” should also be made possible for learner drivers, for example from parents, in order to gain additional driving experience.
