Revolt against pension reform: The Union MPs must be brave!

There’s a problem again with a major coalition project. This time it is the “Young Group” of the Union faction that is triggering the dispute. The 18 MPs have announced their veto against the planned pension package from Friedrich Merz and Lars Klingbeil. This means the coalition lacks a majority.

Another unnecessary argument? Is the coalition running the traffic lights again? Absolutely not. The boys’ opposition had been announced for weeks. It’s not an argument for the sake of an argument. It’s more about a fundamental question: Does this coalition have the strength for proper pension reform? Or is even a small reform invalidated by tricks?

The young CDU/CSU MPs accuse the SPD of the latter, but also their own chancellor. According to them, it’s about an additional 100 billion euros that the coalition wants to shift into the pension system over the next few years. This is because the federal government’s decision to fix the pension level until 2031 automatically increases the pension level in the following years by one point. However, the subsequent years were deliberately excluded from the coalition agreement. Keyword: cost explosion.

The core of the problem is quickly outlined: the number of contributors is shrinking, the number of benefit recipients is increasing – and they are living longer. General prosperity will probably decline. This is precisely why a pension commission should find ways to keep the system stable in the long term. Under these circumstances, the fact that the SPD is now using a calculation trick to artificially increase costs for the coming decades is one thing above all: madness.

And almost everyone knows it. 80 percent of people in Germany are in favor of pension reforms. Who tells the SPD? Haallooo?!

Contrary to what the Social Democrats apparently believe, many people are now at least as angry at a policy that no longer fundamentally tackles anything out of fear of their own courage, rather than of having to forego possible reforms here and there. The time for status quo politics is over.

Once again, the criticism from the Union people is also aimed at the Chancellery: Merz and his head of the Chancellery, Thorsten Frei, were warned early on by the parliamentary group: A pension rule that goes beyond the previous compromise would be difficult to enforce among their own people. The warning faded away.

This renewed frivolity reinforces the impression in the group that the Chancellery is very reluctant to deal with the small print – With the coalition partner SPD this is all the more preferable.

However, one thing has to be blamed on the young wild ones: part of the pension package is, in addition to maintaining the pension level, the completion of the mother’s pension. The young MPs do not criticize the CSU’s heart project in their little revolt. A mistake.

Ultimately, the billion-dollar project is the breaking point of any serious pension debate within this coalition: Why should the Social Democrats make major compromises on their pension ideas when the Union side also continues to pump money into the pension system?

The young MPs should therefore not shy away from conflict with Markus Söder if they are really interested in intergenerational justice. Not everyone in the CSU is still behind Söder’s breakneck billion dollar plan.

In this case, the young savages would have a chance of success with their uprising. We wish they had the courage to do so. The coalition must resolve this dispute. And now.