Young Union continues to oppose government pension package – Bas rejects change
Three days ahead of Germany Day, the Junge Union (JU) stands by its opposition to the federal government’s pension package. JU boss Johannes Winkel (CDU) stressed on Friday at Deutschlandfunk that setting pension levels after 2031 would be too burdensome for the younger generation. The CDU and CSU youth organizations only support the holding line until 2031 which was agreed in the coalition agreement with the SPD. However, Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) rejected the change.
Bas’ draft law on pension stabilization would require follow-up costs of 118 billion euros after 2031, Winkel criticized. This cannot be left alone. “You cannot demand additional costs of 118 billion euros for young people that were not agreed to in the coalition agreement,” Winkel said. He emphasized that JU is not concerned with pension cuts, but rather “how pension increases can perhaps be reduced slightly so that they are in line with demographic developments.”
The 18 members of the United Youth Group’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag threatened to prevent the law’s passage. If their votes are lost in the Bundestag vote, then the coalition alone will not gain a majority. The head of the youth group, Pascal Reddig (CDU), has now reiterated his stance. “If the bill is not changed, we will not approve it,” he told news portal web.de. Reddig is also the federal vice chairman of the Junge Union.
The so-called German Junge Unity Day kicked off on Friday evening in Rust, Baden-Württemberg. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is also scheduled to speak at the three-day annual congress on Saturday. In discussions about pensions, “I don’t think there is any disagreement at all with Friedrich Merz – he also sees the need for major reforms,” Reddig said. “We always understood what Friedrich Merz meant that he also saw the need for changes to the draft law. That’s why I’m excited to see what he will say about it on Germany Day,” he said.
However, before the JU meeting, the minister in charge rejected Ba’s proposed changes to the draft. “It was clear to everyone sitting at the table during the coalition negotiations that the 48 percent cap would be set in law exactly as we do now,” Bas told “Stern.” “I am not fooling anyone or misleading anyone,” he added. Stop lines are also “not a new invention,” Bas emphasized. Instead, the government continues what was introduced in 2018 by the black-red coalition.
DGB leader Yasmin Fahimi sharply criticized JU’s blockade of the Bundestag. “The fact that guaranteed pension rates come at the expense of the younger generation is a cheap claim and factually incorrect,” he told Germany’s Buzzfeed News portal. Stabilizing the retirement rate to 48 percent after 2031 means “planning for security for all future generations.”
AFP
