Merz expects coalition deal on early retirement after 45 years of contributions
Chancellor Merz says he is confident Germany's coalition will settle its dispute over penalty-free retirement after 45 years of contributions, adding that hardship cases must be discussed.
Symbolic image · Photo: Gunnar Klack / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expects his conservative-Social Democrat coalition to resolve its dispute over early retirement. Speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue, he said a solution would be found that would satisfy everyone, the dpa-AFX news agency reported. A government-appointed pension commission has proposed, among other things, scrapping the option to retire without deductions after 45 years of contributions. The plan faces reservations in the Social Democratic Party and also within Merz's own Christian Democrats. Merz said hardship cases in early retirement would need to be discussed.
Merz called the planned introduction of a capital-funded pension the core of the reform, with its returns meant to lift the level of state pensions from 2040. He reaffirmed the timetable, under which the cabinet is to approve the draft law this year and the Bundestag to pass it in the first quarter of 2027. The commission presented its proposals on June 22, and the aim is to agree the reform with parliamentary groups and the federal states this year.
The debate gained new momentum with a change at the Labor Ministry. Since Oct. 13, the department has been led by Alexander Schweitzer, a Social Democrat and former state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, who replaced Bärbel Bas after her resignation. Schweitzer has opposed abolishing the so-called retirement at 63 and said the commission's proposals require further substantive debate. Christian Democrat General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann, by contrast, expects all proposals to be implemented as agreed by coalition leaders, according to ZDFheute.