Germany: Defense commissioner wants mandatory service

Three in four Germans are currently slightly or wholly dissatisfied with the work of the federal government, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

Some 46% of participants in the September "Deutschlandtrend" poll, conducted by Infratest dimap for public broadcaster ARD, said they were slightly dissatisfied, while another 29% said they were wholly dissatisfied.

Meanwhile, 21% said they were satisfied and only 1% described themselves as very satisfied with the work of Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his Cabinet. 

The rates of disapproval were even more pronounced in former East Germany, where only 11% voiced satisfaction and 40% expressed complete dissatisfaction. 

The cooperation between the center right Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and center left Social Democrats (SPD) met with even more disapproval, with 77% of respondents either partly or wholly dissatisfied. 

Cabinet members had just as rough a ride in individual approval ratings. All senior politicians weighed in at 35% approval or less, save one, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) at 60%. Chancellor Merz scored 33%.

Asked about their voting intentions, if the next federal election were to take place this Sunday, participants offered a snapshot more or less comparable to the last election. Some 27% said they'd vote CDU/CSU, the same share as in August, while the SPD's figure rose by one point to 14%. The populist right-wing AfD climbed to 25%, its best score to date but only one point higher than last month, while the Greens slipped by a point to 11% and the Left Party held steady on 10%.

All the other parties would fail to reach the 5% hurdle to guarantee parliamentary representation, based on the poll's findings. 

The pollsters questioned 1,342 people on Monday and Tuesday of this week to compile the data, Infratest dimap said.

Germany installed more new wind power capacity in the first half of the year than other European countries, according to new data from industry association WindEurope. 

Wind turbines with a total capacity of around 2.2 gigawatts (GW) were installed onshore and offshore in Gemrany, with Spain next in line at 889 megawatts (MW) and the UK third with 760 MW. 

Across Europe, WindEurope said, 6.8 GW  of capacity was added, 5.3 GW of that in the 27 EU member states.

The group cut its predictions for new wind power capacity for the year, however. 

It had previously forecast an additional 22 GW would go online by the end of the year, but not it estimates 19 GW. 

It cited slow electrification, grid bottlenecks, permitting issues and limited port and ship availability as constraints. 

WindEurope warns that Europe is well adrift of meeting its target of wind power accounting for 42.5% of energy consumption by 2030. It projects a wind energy output of 344 GW by that year, and says 425 GW would be necessary to reach the goal. 

As recently as 2023, Germany's previous federal government hailed its new "supply chain act" as a breakthrough for human rights and envinronmental standards in the developing world. 

The rules required larger German companies with 1,000 employees or more to take due diligence procedures to monitor the human rights and environmental protection standards of their suppliers in other countries.

The idea was to stop companies from buying produce from sweatshops or highly pollutant mines far afield and then sell them on in Germany without consequence.

But Germany's Cabinet on Wednesday approved draft changes to the law to exempt larger companies from certain documentation requirements that have been criticized as costly and bureaucratic. 

Initially, the new government was planning to cut the law entirely. However, it will remain in place until similar EU legislation has to be transposed into German national law in 2027, Labor Minister Bärbel Bas said. 

Until then, only serious violations — like severe human rights abuses up the supply chain — will be penalized. 

The Labor Ministry estimates that the changes could save businesses €4.1 million ($4.8 million) per year. 

German tax revenues from either inheritance or large gifts rose by 12.3% in 2024 to a new record high, according to the government's statistics agency Destatis. 

Inheritance tax revenues rose by 9.5% to 8.5 billion euros (roughly $9.9 billion), while gift tax revenues rose by 17.8% to €4.8 billion. 

Gift tax revenues have been rising particularly sharply in the last few years, while the upward trend in inheritance tax revenues faltered, suggesting that more people were trying to give their descendants their inheritances early.

Rules governing both inheritance and gift taxes in Germany are complex, but for the most part, fairly large tax-free allowances are in place for money or assets given to close relatives, with only larger donations being taxed. To take a simple example, parents can give a child €400,000 tax-free once every 10 years — equivalent to roughly eight years of a median German salary. For grandparents, the figure drops to €200,000.

The same applies to properties, provided the inheritors can demonstrate they will live in the bulding rather than sell it.

The German cabin crew trade union, UFO, has criticized Ryanair's latest plans to crack down on passengers trying to sneak on a slightly larger piece of hand luggage than approved. 

The budget airline's longstanding CEO, Michael O'Leary, recently announced plans to raise bonuses for staff who blackball oversized bags from €1.50 (roughly $1.75) per bag to €2.50, with no monthly cap on the bonuses. 

Passengers caught will face steep fines from the carrier.

UFO union boss Joachim Vazquez Bürger warned that this approach could backfire. 

"You spoil the mood before the flight even begins when you go after already stressed passengers," Bürger said. 

He warned this could lead to higher numbers of what Ryanair refers to as "unruly passengers" — travelers whose disruptive behavior leads to their ejection from the plane. The airline recently introduced €500 fines on offenders, and called for airports to ban alcohol to improve passenger behavior. 

Ryanair allows for one small bag, weighing no more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and measuring 40x30x20 centimeters (roughly 16x12x8 inches). Passengers who want to put a bag in the luggage hold have to pay extra fees.

Ryanair defended the crackdown plans, with a spokesman saying oversized luggage was unfair to "the over 99% of passengers who follow luggage rules." 

German flag carrier Lufthansa has rejected paying staff such bonuses for rejecting hand luggage, saying disputes with passengers should be resolved "amicably." 

Maximilian Krah, a politician with the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), is answering questions in a Dresden court about a former employee of his at the European Parliament accused of spying on behalf of China. 

Prosecutors allege that Jian G., who worked for Krah as an assistant when he was a member of the European Parliament, had been working for Chinese intelligence since 2002. The case opened last month.

Krah had been the AfD's lead candidate for the European Parliament elections in 2024, but was forced to step aside as the scandal came to light. In the meantime, he has become a member of the Bundestag parliament in Germany. 

You can read about the case in more detail here. 

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was in Delhi on Wednesday, trying to drum up support for plans to double German-Indian bilateral trade in the coming years. 

Wadephul held talks with his counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal in the capital. 

He also visited a secondary school and posed for reporters while trying his hand at field hockey — a team sport in which both Germany and India can claim a rich legacy of success. 

Read about Wadephul's visit to Delhi in more detail here.

The Bundestag parliament's special commissioner for the Bundeswehr military, Henning Otte, has weighed in on the ongoing dispute over German plans to reintroduce some form of voluntary partial military service. 

Speaking to mass-circulation newspaper Bild, in comments published on Wednesday, Otte recommended that one year of service be mandatory — for all men and women, but not exclusively for the military. He recommended a system sounding more than a little reminiscent of the one Germany abolished as recently as 2011, except that it would apply to men and women alike. 

Otte advocated "a mandatory year of service, for men and women, not just in the armed forces but also in emergency services, cultural, sports, or volunteer work."

The current draft law, passed by Cabinet last week and facing debate in parliament, foresees voluntary military service, but a compulsory questionnaire that only young men must fill out on turning 18. 

Otte said the Bundeswehr urgently needed more women recruits, and also warned that the current emphasis on voluntary recruitment might not be sufficient.

He said abolishing the old system of a year's mandatory service for men either in the military or in some other approved role made sense in 2011 because it was no longer necessary for national security. 

"Now the situation is completely different. That is why we must discuss it again," he said. 

Also on Wednesday, the Left Party advocated striking the part of the German constitution that allows for the compulsory recruitment of men either into the military or border or civil protection agencies. 

And the youth wing of the Greens criticized the draft law's focus on young people, and argued that there was too much focus on the Bundeswehr over other areas like disaster response, climate change and social cohesion. It said that Russia's "hybrid war of disinformation and attacks on social cohesion" could not be countered "with weapons and soldiers alone." 

Herzliche Grüße aus Bonn. Here's our roundup of what's making the news in Germany on September 3, 2025.