More than 50,000 pupils expected to strike over German rearmament policy

Tens of thousands of pupils across Germany are expected to boycott the classroom and take to the streets in a nationwide protest organisers say is to stop the government’s rearmament policy turning young people into “cannon fodder”. Despite threats from teachers’ associations and education ministries, which have said anyone who demonstrates during school hours could risk penalties and even expulsion, organisers say they expect the number of participants at Friday’s school strike to be at least as high as the estimated 50,000 who attended each of the first two. “The government and industry are preparing for war and we, the young, are supposed to become the cannon fodder. Neither have we even been consulted,” Hannes Kramer, the main spokesperson for the movement Schulstreik gegen Wehrpflicht (School Strike Against Conscription), told the Guardian. The protest reflects unrest felt in homes and classrooms across Germany, Kramer said, since Friedrich Merz’s government brought in in hotly contested changes to military service policy, arguing the country needed to boost its defences amid growing threats from Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Striking pupils in Bochum, Germany, in March. Photograph: Anadolu/ Under the Military Service Modernisation Act, mandatory questionnaires are being sent to all 18-year-olds to assess their willingness and suitability for military service. From next year, compulsory medical tests will be introduced. …