(de-news.net) – The future of early retirement without benefit reductions for employees with 45 years of pension contributions has emerged as one of the most contentious issues within Germany’s governing coalition of the CDU/CSU conservatives and the center-left SPD. While senior CDU leaders continue to back the Pension Commission’s recommendation to abolish the provision as part of a broader package intended to secure the long-term sustainability of the pension system, several eastern German state premiers have urged the Federal Government to preserve the early retirement policy.
Despite growing resistance from influential regional leaders, CDU/CSU parliamentary chairman Thorsten Frei reaffirmed his support for the commission’s proposal. He argued that abolishing the provision would strengthen intergenerational fairness by preventing what he described as preferential treatment for a comparatively small group of workers at the expense of younger contributors. Frei emphasized that the coalition had agreed to implement the Pension Commission’s recommendations largely as a comprehensive reform package rather than selectively, maintaining that the integrity of the overall compromise should be preserved. He also reiterated his personal commitment to advancing the package in its current form.
The strongest opposition within the CDU has come from the premiers of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia, who jointly appealed to the Federal Government to retain the so-called ‘retirement at 63’ program. In a letter, they argued that employees who have contributed to the pension system for 45 years have earned the right to retire without financial reductions and maintained that this principle should remain unchanged. Their intervention has highlighted growing unease among eastern CDU leaders over a proposal that could affect many long-serving workers in their states.
CDU Secretary-General Franziska Hoppermann likewise defended the Pension Commission’s recommendations, stressing that the reform had been designed as a carefully balanced package whose individual elements should not be separated for political convenience. She warned that removing controversial provisions such as the proposed abolition of unreduced early retirement would undermine the broader compromise and weaken the reform’s long-term viability. Hoppermann said the CDU remained committed to a pension system that recognizes lifetime employment while ensuring that it remains financially sustainable for future generations.
Regional leaders increase pressure on Berlin over early retirement
The SPD, however, rejects the proposal to abolish the benefit. Secretary-General Tim Klüssendorf argued that workers who have completed 45 years of contributions should continue to have access to unreduced early retirement, describing the policy as recognition of lengthy working lives rather than a special privilege. He suggested that any shift by the CDU toward the SPD’s position would represent a constructive political signal, while acknowledging that the Pension Commission’s recommendation remains one of the coalition’s most disputed elements of the broader pension reform package.
Brandenburg Premier Dietmar Woidke (SPD), echoed those concerns by opposing the planned abolition. He argued that retirement policy should ensure adequate financial security in old age and maintained that employees who have worked and contributed for 45 years should qualify for a full pension without benefit reductions.
Meanwhile, the CSU urged its CDU sister party to maintain coalition discipline, warning that abandoning the negotiated reform package would leave younger generations with growing financial obligations and place additional pressure on the long-term sustainability of the pension system. The Junge Union, the conservative bloc’s youth organization, similarly cautioned against reopening the pension compromise for short-term political advantage, arguing that doing so would undermine both the credibility of the coalition agreement and confidence in the reform process.
The debate intensified further after Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Premier Manuela Schwesig (SPD) publicly backed the eastern CDU premiers’ position, while Saxony Premier Michael Kretschmer (CDU) indicated that he could oppose the legislation in the Bundesrat. Although the policy continues to be widely known as the “retirement at 63,” workers with 45 years of contributions currently become eligible only at the age of 64. Nevertheless, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) have pledged to implement the Pension Commission’s recommendations in full, underscoring the government’s determination to pursue a comprehensive pension reform despite mounting political resistance.
