Overview
- The Junge Union unanimously rejected the cabinet draft and its 18 Bundestag members threatened to vote it down, a number large enough to erase the CDU/CSU–SPD coalition’s roughly 12-seat working majority.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the package at the JU meeting in Rust, pledged to support it in parliament, and disputed critics’ estimates of roughly €118–120 billion in long-term costs by pointing to a planned commission for broader reform.
- SPD leader and finance minister Lars Klingbeil ruled out any changes to the law, and labour minister Bärbel Bas reiterated that the 48 percent pension safeguard was agreed, with the draft keeping that level to 2031 and language that leaves it about one point higher thereafter.
- Unionsfraktionschef Jens Spahn offered further talks to find an acceptable path but signaled limited scope for alterations, framing the pension guarantee as a hard-won coalition compromise.
- Senior conservatives, including economics minister Katherina Reiche, CSU leader Markus Söder, and the Seniors’ Union chief Hubert Hüppe, voiced sympathy for the youth wing’s sustainability concerns and urged consideration, as contentious elements such as the Aktivrente and Mütterrente complicate bargaining.