Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has it Young Association (JU) calls for constructive joint discussions on pension packages. He criticized the Junge Union’s defensive stance on the coalition’s pension plan: “I don’t want to see us competing to undercut: Who offers the lowest pension level? We won’t win the election with that,” he said at the Junge Union’s German Day in Rust, Baden-Württemberg.
Merz also announced that he would opt for a retirement package. “I will approve this pension package with a clear conscience after we vote in the German Bundestag,” he said. He rejected Junge Union’s calculations that the bill would result in additional costs of 120 billion euros on pension insurance after 2032.
In the coalition agreement it was agreed with the SPD to create new indicators of service levels for the period after 2031. pension to determine. This then includes mandatory pensions, company pensions and expanded funded coverage.
Merz relies on long-term volunteer work
Merz called for an intergenerational agreement on pension provisions in Germany. He pushed for voluntary retirement. The CDU wants to signal “not by force, not by constant regulation, but by the right incentives to do the right thing, so that society does the right thing not only in its own interests, but also in the interests of society as a whole,” he said.
He was referring to the active pension, which will come into effect in 2026. This allows people to earn an additional 2,000 euros tax-free if they stay on the labor market beyond the pension limit. “We want and expect people to work longer in Germany,” Merz said. He believes a large number of employees in Germany will take advantage of it and want to do so. But if the numbers are not large enough, “of course we have to discuss the question of how we can readjust the relationship between working hours, tenure and pensions,” Merz said.
According to him, there have been several adjustments regarding future pension guarantees. “And that is why we will once again strengthen private provision,” the Chancellor announced. Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) will present a proposal on this matter later this year.
The SPD does not want any further compromise on pensions
Klingbeil also spoke on the topic of pensions at the SPD Baden-Württemberg state party conference in Ulm. His party made a compromise in a long debate in order to implement pension guarantees. “Let me say it clearly: Nothing will be changed in this law,” he said. The law was passed without debate in the cabinet and will be ratified in the Bundestag. It is “unlikely” to suggest changes after that, Klingbeil said.
Young Union wants to reject the coalition’s pension plan
The Junge Union had previously voted unanimously on Germany Day on a motion calling on the CDU/CSU parliamentary group to return the pension package to the current pension level from 2032. Thus, the Junge Union confirmed its confrontational action in the dispute over pension policy.
The law on pension stabilization that has been passed by the Federal Cabinet “cannot be approved and therefore we will not approve it in this form,” said the head of the Young Group of Parliamentarians in the Bundestag, Pascal Reddig.
Even before Germany Day began, Bavarian JU leader Manuel Knoll had asked the CDU chief for support in the pension dispute. Junge Union criticized, among other things, the expansion of maternal pensions promised by the CSU and the guaranteed pension levels after 2031 planned by Federal Minister of Social Affairs Bärbel Bas (SPD).
With material from the news agencies AFP, dpa and Reuters
