Overview
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz is standing by the coalition’s pension package, while the Junge Union pushes for changes over projected long‑term costs of about €120 billion.
- Karl Lauterbach warned on ZDF’s Markus Lanz that the escalating dispute could endanger coalition unity, a characterization the JU chairman rejected as overblown.
- The pension deal combines an SPD‑backed 48% pension level safeguard with the CDU’s ‘active pension’ concept and an expansion of the CSU‑favored mothers’ pension, according to current briefings.
- In Brandenburg, four lawmakers quit the BSW party but stayed in the parliamentary group, which temporarily stripped them of speaking rights for a three‑day sitting before Wednesday’s vote on two media state treaties.
- BSW Finance Minister Robert Crumbach supports the treaties while most of his group opposes them; deputy floor leader Christian Dorst urged Crumbach to leave the faction, and Sahra Wagenknecht acknowledged organizational lapses but called for talks as the SPD‑BSW coalition’s durability remains uncertain.