Berlin (AFP) – Hundreds of people take part in a protest rally against military service and rearmament in central Berlin. “If the government or those old men decide once again that they have to go to war, they can go themselves,” says one protester. German lawmakers backed a new military service scheme in December 2025 in a bid to bolster its understaffed armed forces. The scheme does not include conscription but does involve mandatory screening of all 18-year-old men.
