Bavarian conservative leader rejects putting German lawmakers into state pension system
A government pension commission wants lawmakers to pay into the statutory pension system. CSU parliamentary chief Alexander Hoffmann opposes that and proposes mirroring any cuts instead.
Symbolic image · Photo: Gerd Eichmann / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Alexander Hoffmann, who leads the Bavarian CSU's lawmakers in Germany's parliament, has come out against bringing federal and state legislators into the statutory pension system. "Including federal and state lawmakers does not solve the problem of the statutory pension," he told newspapers of the Mediengruppe Bayern group, warning it would mean running several systems in parallel for decades.
Hoffmann instead favors what he called an equivalent transfer: any savings measure, increase in the retirement age or curb on benefits in the statutory system should apply automatically and to exactly the same extent to politicians' pensions. He said the job of lawmaker must remain attractive, including for self-employed people and others who could earn more outside politics.
A pension commission appointed by the government has recommended that both the self-employed and lawmakers pay into the statutory system, a proposal backed by the Social Democrats. Lawmakers currently receive a state-funded retirement allowance based on how long they served and pay no pension contributions.