“It just doesn’t work”
Merz clearly rejects CDU plans for retirement at 70
23.08.2024, 12:26
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If the CDU takes over the government, there are plans to quickly decide on an increase in the retirement age. According to this, the standard retirement age should be adjusted to life expectancy. The CDU’s social wing sharply criticized this. Party leader Merz also opposes this.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz has clearly rejected calls from his own party to raise the retirement age. “There will be no retirement age of 70 in either the election manifesto or a possible coalition agreement with us,” the Union parliamentary group leader told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. “We have discussed the issue in the party committees.”
The CDU’s basic program states “that in the longer term we must link working life to life expectancy,” said Merz, adding: “But we are against a rigid, schematic retirement age for all professional groups, that simply does not work.”
A debate about the retirement age has recently broken out in the CDU. The head of the SME and Economic Union, Gitta Connemann, called for an increase. “The government program – as well as the basic program – will have to state that we are adjusting the standard retirement age to life expectancy,” Connemann told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. “If we are in government, we will have to decide on this link in the next legislative period. The possibility of people who have been insured for a long time retiring two years earlier must also be eliminated.”
CDU social wing sees danger of victory in federal election
Meanwhile, the CDU’s social wing CDA has voiced opposition to the demands of the small and medium-sized business association for a higher retirement age. “We now have a social consensus for retirement at 67. Constant debates about tightening the rules are not getting us anywhere,” said Dennis Radtke, chairman of the CDA North Rhine-Westphalia, to the “Tagesspiegel”.
“With the CDA, there will be no flat-rate pension at 70 and no lowering of the level below 48 percent,” said Radtke. He sees the demands of the CDU’s economic wing as a threat to a victory in the 2025 federal election.
Currently, the age limit is increasing by two months each year until the standard retirement age reaches 67 in 2031. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil of the SPD rejects a higher age limit.
Social association calls for reformed basic pension
The social association VdK is also against raising the retirement age. “Almost every day, new ideas are being produced about how to encourage pensioners to work longer. But those who cannot work longer are being forgotten,” criticized VdK President Verena Bentele.
The VdK is calling for a reformed basic pension, a higher disability pension and more pension for family carers. Bentele said: “The government must ensure that everyone has a good and secure pension after reaching retirement age. Only those who really want to should continue to work. Poverty in old age must not become a personal failure.”