Overview

• At the Osnabrück party gathering, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the current welfare model is “not financeable,” vowed to make talks “not easy” for the SPD, and urged the coalition to argue less in public.
• Merz voiced dissatisfaction with the first 100 days of the government, criticized Bürgergeld incentives with 5.6 million recipients, and pushed for stricter rules to move more people into work.
• CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann called for a paradigm shift to cut benefits for repeated job refusers, while SPD leaders pressed for higher taxes on very high incomes and wealth instead.
• Juso chief Philipp Türmer signaled potential resistance in the Bundestag to social cuts, underscoring coalition tensions ahead of an expected contentious autumn of budget decisions.
• Niedersachsen’s CDU re‑elected Sebastian Lechner with 95 percent and advanced an education package including a school mobile‑phone ban, a social‑media minimum age of 14, and mandatory language tests for four‑year‑olds.