The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thorsten Frei, defended the pension package in its current form. “We have negotiated a good overall package with maternal pension, active pension and early retirement,” the CDU politician told “Focus” magazine. “I think it can be approved, especially because we will then discuss broad reforms in the pension commission.” The Commission is expected to make proposals for long-term guarantees on pension provisions in the summer of 2026.
Due to the lack of a secure coalition majority, the possibility of postponing the Bundestag vote originally planned for December had been discussed for days. The Unity Youth Group faction does not want to support the plan without making changes because they fear it will cost billions of dollars for the period 2031 and beyond. Frei acknowledged: “But you have to say that the pensions section of the coalition agreement is open to interpretation: the arguments of the SPD and the Young Group are understandable.”
The background is the resistance of young CDU/CSU members in the Bundestag to a draft law on a 48 percent pension ownership limit in 2031. They criticized that the wording of the draft would also prevent reductions in subsequent years.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has criticized that the draft law on the termination line will also include a declaration leading to a comprehensive pension reform by 2026. Labor Minister and co-leader of the SPD Bärbel Bas warned the Young Group in the Union against triggering a government crisis.
In a statement by young MPs from the SPD parliamentary group, it was stated that this is not about young versus old, but about justice between rich and poor. The pension commission, which will start soon, is the right place to clarify any further questions.
