Berlin – The SPD cannot and does not want to help the Chancellor. The comrades remain firm in the pension dispute. The SPD does not want to change a word about the law that Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (57, SPD) used to stabilize the pension rate at 48 percent until 2031.
The only concession that the parties and parliamentary groups have made to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (70, CDU) and the leader of the Union parliamentary group Jens Spahn (45, CDU), is what the SPD is ready to do: Apart from an unchanged pension package (in addition to pension guarantees, including the CSU mothers’ pension project and the CDU active pension project), the black-red coalition can still pass the so-called motion for resolution in the Bundestag. In this initially insignificant expression of desire union And SPD promised to take care of the financial surplus of the incoming generation of young people in the pension commission.
Dispute between CDU boss and Chancellor Friedrich Merz (70) and JU boss Johannes Winkel (34)
Problem: That PensionThis was not enough for the rebels in the Union who did not want to agree to Bas’ laws. They want to change the bill because it would increase the pension rate by one percent even after 2031 and thus incur additional costs of 115 billion in 2040.
The SPD leadership cited four internal reasons for its difficult position:
Comrade (who actually wants to set the pension rate at 48 percent until 2039 in coalition negotiations) will pay a heavy price elsewhere to enforce the pension guarantee until 2031.
It has always been clear to all leading politicians in the coalition that from 2032 the pension rate will be reduced from 48 percent and not (as Junge Union demands) from 47 percent. This was discussed in detail in coalition negotiations, including when SPD leader Lars Klingbeil (47) and CSU member Alexander Dobrindt (55) resolved financial issues in coalition negotiations in a crisis meeting.
Bas’ bill was passed by the cabinet without criticism from the Union. Not a single minister from the CDU and CSU submitted the so-called leadership reservations that would have initially stopped the bill from passing.
If the Youth Group in the Union parliamentary group (18 MPs) can now push for high-level legislative changes (a central SPD election promise), then there will be no discipline in voting until the next election.
In simple language: The SPD leadership is worried that SPD MPs will also rebel against Union projects and demand changes. The Union and the SPD would then destroy each other’s projects. This will be very difficult for Dobrindt’s migration turnaround.
The SPD now expects the EU to get the majority of its pension funds in the next two weeks. As friends wish, the package should definitely be brought to parliament in December. The SPD relies on CSU leader Markus Söder (58), who is pushing for an expansion of maternal pensions in the coalition. According to the pension insurance, its implementation (for children born before 1992 there is a pension of about 20 euros more) takes two years. Therefore, the CSU has a clear interest in passing it this year.
And: SPD confirmed that the pension package will only be provided simultaneously. If the Trade Union blocks the SPD pension guarantee, there will be no mother’s pension or active pension (€2000 tax benefit for working pensioners).
A key colleague from the parliamentary group: “Unity must resolve the pension issue, otherwise this will have far-reaching consequences for cooperation within the coalition.”
Nobody gives up!: Will the government collapse over pension disputes?
