The coalition’s pension package is in danger of failing. 18 rebels from the Union ranks threatened to resist. 18 votes that may be missing from the government’s majority.
19 Oct 2025 | 4:01 min
This is a story of hopes, political expectations, and disappointed love that is currently taking place between the young members of the CDU and CSU and their chancellors. With Friedrich Merz’s first candidacy as CDU chairman in 2018, representatives of the Junge Union were the ones who most loudly supported Sauerlander’s rise.
Together with Merz, they hope for policies that are truly market-based, more conservative and, most importantly, directed at the interests of the younger generation. With the election of the Chancellor, these hopes must be translated into practical politics.
Now, six months after Merz’s election, young MPs in the Union parliamentary group realize that their chancellor appears to have let them down on retirement. And with the 18 votes they secured, they threatened to overturn the coalition’s 12-vote majority and pension package.
Pension package: Additional costs of more than 115 billion euros
On this year’s Day of Young German Unity, taking place this weekend at the Europapark Rust in Baden-Württemberg, everyone involved now expects the Chancellor to build bridges. That he found a compromise between the cabinet’s decision regarding retirement in August and the fears of the Junge Union. They calculate that this decision could trigger additional costs of more than 115 billion euros in the years after 2031 – in their view, an amount too large for future generations.
Union leader Jens Spahn is also under pressure from his own ranks in a row over the coalition’s pension package. Saxony-Anhalt Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff said at the time of his serious illness, “he had to finish”.
11/13/2025 | 3:06 min
After the cabinet decision, the Chancellor showed his understanding towards young people. “I understand what the younger generation means,” Merz said openly during a visit to Potsdam – and hinted that the bill would be discussed again.
It is now said that Merz is siding with the SPD – which considers the issue “very important”, as the Union leadership put it. The Chancellor certainly wants to maintain peace in the coalition. The CSU also supports this stance. It’s clear that he’s also protecting his mother’s controversial pension fund.
CSU: Do you want to jeopardize the coalition because of this?
CSU Berlin Governor Alexander Hoffmann, head of the Bavarian regional group in the Bundestag, took out the largest group this week when he asked: “Do you want to jeopardize a successful coalition?”
But the offer that the coalition leader made to the young MPs, namely to discuss the issue of pension development after 2031 in the pension commission plan, did not seem enough to them.
The majority of Germans doubt the long-term reliability of statutory pension funds. 83 percent believe that it can no longer guarantee the future.
November 4, 2025 | 1:34 min
As a reminder: The so-called pension package includes the introduction of an active pension, an early pension, a mother’s pension and a so-called cap line in the pension formula – that is, a guarantee that the pension level will remain at 48 percent in the future. Young politicians around Pascal Reddig, chairman of the Youth Parliament, and Johannes Winkel, chairman of Junge Union, argue that this also applies after 2031. This was not agreed in the coalition agreement.
Merz threatened with an uncomfortable appearance
Merz’s visit to Rust must have been uncomfortable for the Chancellor. Moreover, the Germany Day organizers planned Pascal Reddig’s speech directly in front of him. His speech will show how far progress has been made in the negotiations underway behind the scenes.
In the morning magazine, SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch was satisfied with the agreement at the coalition committee. If there is an open question about retirement, he sees “no reason to make any changes.”
11/14/2025 | 4:57 min
If the pension package is not ultimately discussed and voted on in the Bundestag in December as planned, this will likely be a burden on the coalition that it will not be able to bear. At least that is the assessment of the Union leadership.
