Overview
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the government’s pension package at the Junge Union meeting in Rust, saying he will support it in the Bundestag and urging a constructive debate rather than a race to offer the lowest pension level.
- Delegates from the Junge Union endorsed a rejection of the bill, and 18 young CDU/CSU lawmakers maintain they could block it, a move that would imperil the coalition’s roughly 12-seat working majority.
- At issue is a guarantee to stabilize the statutory pension level at 48 percent until 2031 and language critics say effectively extends benefits beyond that date, with the JU citing 118–120 billion euros in follow-on costs.
- Merz questioned those cost projections and pointed to a planned broader pension reform and commission work as mechanisms to prevent such burdens, but his remarks drew little applause compared with strong support for critics.
- CDU Vice Michael Kretschmer voiced sympathy for the youth wing’s concerns, while party and government figures signaled no appetite for rewriting the SPD-drafted bill led by Social Minister Bärbel Bas.