Overview

• Speaking at the CDU Senioren-Union meeting in Magdeburg, Karin Prien called the compulsory service idea the wrong approach.
• She noted that many older people already volunteer, care for grandchildren, and support neighbors.
• Prien said society should better harness the experience and skills of older generations.
• She pledged to oppose age discrimination and warned against seeing seniors only as cost factors in health and long-term care systems.
• The proposal originated from economist Marcel Fratzscher and has faced criticism, including from the CDU’s Senioren-Union leadership, as impractical and unjust.