"Merz, lick my balls"

"In Berlin, during a student demonstration against military conscription, a sign displayed by an 18-year-old led to the opening of a police investigation into alleged defamation and slander of Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz."

The incident, reported by " Il Mittle Berlino, " occurred during a protest in the center of the capital. Authorities confiscated the sign.

The incriminated cartel

If only they hadn't done it: the story became news. It had the opposite effect to the repressive intent. And now the slogan on the confiscated sign ("Merz, lick my balls") is making the rounds in German schools, and students are organizing a large demonstration to be held on May 8th.

The incriminating slogan originates from a rap song: " Merz leck eier ." And it went so viral that the website merzleckeier.de was even created.

Refusal of military service—which the German government intends to reintroduce—has now become widespread among an ever-widening segment of young Germans.

It is the symptom of the categorical refusal of a generation that does not want to be cannon fodder for the profits of the war industry.

A crescendo of mobilizations among young people

From December 5, 2025, to March 5, 2026, including the Easter demonstrations, the "Schulstreik gegen Wehrpflicht" (School Strike Against Conscription) movement grew to involve tens of thousands of students in over 130 German cities. And it faced repression, which a growing number of students complained about.

It all began on December 5, 2025. While the Bundestag voted on the reform of "military service," thousands of students walked out of the classrooms in around 90 cities. Estimates put the number of participants at around 55,000. In Berlin, several thousand young people marched carrying handmade banners and chanting slogans not seen since the end of the Cold War.

The innovation was and is organizational: strike committees in schools, self-produced materials, local coordination, and an extraordinary ability to resist disciplinary pressure.

March 5, 2026, marked the second major milestone. Despite the requirement for medical certificates in many schools to discourage strikes, 50,000 students in over 130 cities took to the streets. In Berlin, not only was a sign reading "Merz, lick Eier" confiscated, but also one with the words: "Merz, go die on the Eastern Front."

What German students are contesting

The military recruitment reform that came into force on January 1, 2026, is at the center of much anger. It doesn't formally reintroduce conscription, which was suspended in 2011, but creates a subtle mechanism: all eighteen-year-olds (with a more stringent requirement for males) are forced to fill out a questionnaire on their "motivation" for military service and undergo a medical examination. On paper, service is "voluntary." In reality, if voluntary recruitment doesn't reach the target of 260,000 soldiers (currently 180,000), the path to compulsory conscription is paved. Student movements are aware of this and are denouncing it.

Next stop: May 8th, against conscription and for peace

The movement continues. After the success of March 5th, the next meeting has already been set for May 8th, 2026 , the symbolic date marking the end of World War II in Europe. On that day, the students promise an even larger strike, to say "no more war" and "no more conscription."

The stated goal is to build strike committees in every school, create a national network of local principals, and definitively block the return of conscription.

The international networks War Resisters' International (WRI) and the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) are closely following the German situation, aware that what happens in Berlin today could happen tomorrow in Rome, Paris, or Warsaw.

The event will take place in German squares and across Europe.