Overview

• CDU leaders reject tax increases, with Secretary-General Carsten Linnemann calling the debate unnecessary and citing the coalition pledge against hikes.
• The Junge Union proposes pension savings that restrict early retirement to medically unfit workers and fold civil-service pensions into the sustainability factor, alongside calls to shrink the public workforce.
• Jusos chief Philipp Türmer insists the SPD must not accept cuts to health insurance or pensions and urges careful scrutiny of any Bürgergeld changes.
• Klingbeil couples his revenue push with structural reforms in health, care, Bürgergeld and pensions while opposing a link between retirement age and life expectancy.
• Rhineland-Palatinate premier Alexander Schweitzer backs higher taxes on multimillionaires and billionaires, arguing they contribute less relative to wage earners and pointing to past higher top rates.