(de-news.net) – In his speech at the Germany Day of the youth organization Junge Union, CDU chairman Merz has rejected the demand to link the retirement age to higher life expectancy. He said that the statutory retirement age of 67 should be retained. He justified this by saying that otherwise, the SPD could start a campaign accusing the CDU of cutting pensions in Germany. However, Merz wants to improve incentives for longer working hours – similar to what Chancellor Scholz (SPD) has proposed.
Meanwhile, the president of the employers’ association Gesamtmetall, Wolf, has called on the traffic light coalition to stop the pension package II, in which the pension level would be set at 48 percent of the average income until the year 2039. This would undermine intergenerational fairness, said Wolf. Young, mobile people would be driven abroad if taxes and levies were higher. The package is a risk to the location and “one of the greatest injustices of this coalition”. It could “cost everyone dearly.” Merz, on the other hand, had a “better understanding of what politics can do for an economic recovery.”
Chancellor Scholz indirectly described the second pension package as a prerequisite for the maintenance of the traffic light coalition. The law will be passed in 2024, he insisted on the “clear agreement.” Finance Minister Lindner (FDP), on the other hand, accused Scholz and Economics Minister Habeck (Greens) of a lack of coordination when it comes to economic policy. This autumn, clarity must be created about Germany’s future, he emphasized, adding that as long as the coalition agreement is respected, the FDP will not leave the governing coalition. In the middle of the month, SPD leader Klingbeil had warned the FDP against blocking the second pension package. Lindner had given his word to push through the package. Klingbeil stated that he could “not imagine a scenario in which this coalition does not pass the pension package in the autumn.”
“A law must be negotiated until it is good,” replied parliamentary manager and deputy party leader of the FDP, Vogel, in response to the SPD’s position. He pointed out that the pension level must be stabilized in a way that is fair to all generations. He suggested that it was not convincing that increasing spending would continue to be the way to keep pensions stable and secure in the long term, and called for an expansion of the share pension.
The Federal Audit Office had warned in an expert statement that the second pension package would significantly increase financial commitment at the federal level. This would involve significant debt by 2045 and entail considerable risks in terms of an overburdening. Pensions of today’s pensioners and the baby boomers would have to be shouldered by the younger and future generations of contributors. The pension expert Börsch-Supan proposed a compromise. Politicians should concentrate on those earning less, while those earning more should build up private pensions with company pensions. The Pensions Parket II is “in large parts an expression of the refusal” to “recognise the realities,” Börsch-Supan pointed out.
Thorsten Koch
