Chancellor angers pension debate
Scholz: “Germany is not an amusement park”
May 1, 2024, 1:57 a.m
While the coalition partner FDP is calling for an end to pensions at 63 and the CDU is calling for an increase in the retirement age in its basic program, the Chancellor strictly rejects such demands. Younger people also need reliability, says Scholz.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected calls for an increase in the retirement age. “Germany’s employees have never worked as many hours as they did last year,” he said in a podcast published by the Federal Press Office. “That’s why it annoys me when some people talk disparagingly about ‘Germany’s theme park’. Or when people call for raising the retirement age,” emphasized the SPD politician. For him, it is a question of decency not to deny those who have worked for a long time the retirement they deserve. “And younger people who are just starting out in their working lives also have the right to know how long they have to work.”
This should also be understood as a response to the coalition partner FDP. They recently presented a twelve-point plan at their federal party conference, which, among other things, calls for the abolition of pensions at 63 for those who have been insured for a long time. The SPD and the Greens reject this. The CDU speaks in its new Basic program to link the retirement age to the development of life expectancy.
Scholz emphasized that over 46 million women and men in Germany are currently employed – more than ever before. There are also over 20 million pensioners who have worked hard for many years. “All of them, their performance and their hard work deserve respect,” said the Chancellor. The best guarantee for good wages is and remains good collective agreements. Good collective bargaining agreements ensured that many employees finally had more money in their pockets again. “Experts are even predicting a particularly big increase for us this year: an average of around 5 percent in wages,” emphasized Scholz. In addition, pensions also rose on July 1st, uniformly in East and West. “This is also a question of respect for years of work,” emphasized Scholz.