Söder closes Young Union congress as party youth demand action
CSU leader Söder takes the stage at 9 a.m. today as the last prominent speaker at the Young Union in Bonn. A day earlier, Chancellor Merz promised a cabinet decision on pensions this year.
Archive image · Photo: Kasa Fue / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
CSU leader and Bavarian Premier Markus Söder is speaking on Sunday at the close of the Young Union (JU) national congress, the Deutschlandtag, in Bonn, with his address scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. According to dpa, he is the last prominent speaker at the three-day conference, which ends in the afternoon. Chancellor Friedrich Merz and North Rhine-Westphalia Premier Hendrik Wüst, both of the CDU, spoke earlier. JU leader Johannes Winkel, 34, was reelected on Friday for another two years with his best result to date.
On Saturday, Merz promised around 300 delegates that the government's pension decision would go to the cabinet before the end of this year. "I want us to implement the pension commission's reform proposals as they are on the table," he said, according to t-online. The new SPD labor minister, Alexander Schweitzer, by contrast, wants to keep in principle the option of retiring without deductions after 45 years of contributions and is seeking a compromise. The first reading in the Bundestag is due before the turn of the year, with the final vote to follow in early 2027.
The applause for Merz was "friendly but restrained," according to ZDF. Agnes Brücklmayer of the Bavarian JU urged the chancellor: "Let your words be followed by deeds." Hesse's JU leader Lukas Brandscheid said: "We cannot stand by and watch as we, the CDU, are wound down." Winkel criticized the CDU for "still doing politics as if it were 2010." According to dpa, Söder and Wüst are seen as possible successors to Merz in the chancellery.