Conservative caucus leader Frei: Take pension package “as it is”

Thorsten Frei, who leads the parliamentary group of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU bloc, has warned against reopening the coalition's planned pension package. “We should take the entire package as it is,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, German news agency dts reported. The package is balanced and its parts interlock, he said. The specific design of individual points could be discussed: “But changes must not be fundamental or of principle.” Otherwise, he warned, a chain reaction could follow: “Because if one side reopens one point, the other side comes with another point.”

Frei recalled that similar reform plans in past decades had not been implemented after a pension commission was set up. At the same time, he defended the excise taxes planned by the coalition. He sees a “clear health aspect” in the levy on sugary drinks.

The CDU politician acknowledged that the tobacco tax would fuel inflation. He nevertheless defended it: “This is an excise tax on something that is not strictly necessary for making a living.” That is “in any case something different from taxing labor,” he said.