Completing a year of community service would improve the integration of refugees into German society, an ally of Angela Merkel has said.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the general secretary of the CDU, said many members of the ruling conservative party supported reinstating either the military draft or a year of community service.
The party was looking at different service proposals for inclusion in the party’s next election campaign, she told a French newspaper in an interview published on Saturday.
Merkel’s decision in 2015 to let in over a million migrants, many fleeing wars in the Middle East, has fuelled support for far-right groups such as PEGIDA and the Alternative for Germany, now the main opposition party in parliament.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (left), the general secretary of the CDU led by Angela Merkel (right), has suggested a year of community service for refugees in Germany
Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer, who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Mrs Merkel, said: ‘If refugees complete such a year, either voluntary or compulsory, it would help their integration into the country and society.
‘And in the communities, it would increase acceptance that refugees live among us.’
She admitted she herself had reservations, remembering her mother’s stories about having to complete a mandatory year of service during the Nazi era.
But she said many party members had told her during a summer ‘listening tour’ that reinstating the draft – which was scrapped in 2011 – or community service was a good idea for both native Germans and immigrants.
Last week Germany said efforts integrate refugees in the country’s labor market are progressing well.
More than 300,000 people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Somalia had a job in May, 103,000 more than a year earlier, officials said.
German officials said this month they had no intention of reinstating compulsory military service, citing the high cost and the difficulty of integrating draftees into the professional military.
The German military has targeted youngsters with online video campaigns to attract recruits
The country scrapped national service in 2011 but pressure on Berlin to beef up its military mounted again in July when U.S. President Donald Trump told a NATO summit that Washington could withdraw support for the alliance.
The military has targeted youngsters with slick online video campaigns, featuring ith lively music and scenes showing the lives of young soldiers.
But they have drawn criticism from some left-wing politicians and child welfare advocates in Germany, where the military remains a sensitive subject more than 70 years after World War II.
In 2017, 2,128 people under 18 joined the German army, up 11.4 per cent from 2016 and accounting for 9 per cent of new recruits, according to government data.
‘The Bundeswehr today is a volunteer army … Therefore, it must approach young people to win them over,’ a spokeswoman for the personnel management department at the Bundeswehr said.