Overview
- The cabinet draft would stabilize the pension level at 48% and keep it about one percentage point higher after 2031 than current law, a change critics say could add roughly €118 billion in costs.
- Eighteen Young Union MPs threaten to withhold their votes, with chair Pascal Reddig rejecting a non-binding resolution and urging a delay to pair the plan with broader reforms.
- The Greens declare they will not support the bill in its current form, calling it completely inadequate and pressing for steps such as longer healthy working lives and a wider contributor base.
- Die Linke signals conditional backing only if the package is not weakened, describing it as an absolute minimum and advocating a unified system that includes all professions.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil rule out reopening the draft as Jens Spahn predicts agreement by year-end, with Bundestag and Bundesrat votes scheduled for December 19 to enable a January 1, 2026 start.