Traffic light dispute over pension – Kühnert criticizes the FDP’s 5-point plan
SPD criticism of FDP pension proposal – Kühnert complains about “tiring ritual”
The traffic light continues to argue about pension policy. The FDP wants to abolish the discount-free pension at 63 for those who have been insured for a particularly long time. SPD General Secretary Kühnert told the “Tagesspiegel” that the FDP’s attacks on pensions were a “tiring ritual.” Luisa Stangl reports.
Budget planning for 2025 is the federal government’s new controversial topic. The SPD and the Greens vehemently reject a five-point paper from the FDP that questions spending on pensions, citizens’ benefits and development aid.
PPoliticians from the SPD and the Greens have expressed their opposition to their liberal coalition partner’s five-point plan with plans for the federal budget and pensions. The attacks on pensions by both the FDP and the Union have “become a tiring ritual,” said SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert.Daily Mirror“. Abolishing the current rules of pension law “would mean a pension cut for millions of employees,” he said.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and SPD party leader Saskia Esken had previously rejected cuts for pensioners. With the five-point paper that the FDP Presidium wants to adopt this Monday, the Liberals are calling for a “generationally fair budget policy”. This must comply with the debt limit of the Basic Law and must not overburden young people when financing pensions, it says.
From the Liberals’ point of view, there is a need for reforms to the social systems and the abolition of the “pension at 63” – this is about the pension without deductions after a particularly long insurance period.
Green parliamentary group vice-president Konstantin von Notz criticized the FDP’s demand for compliance with the 2025 debt brake in the “Tagesspiegel”. “In times when our freedom is under as much pressure as it is currently from an aggressive Russia and extremists of all stripes, we have to rely on certainties Put the debt brake to the test in its current form,” he said.
With regard to necessary investments in the Bundeswehr, police and cybersecurity, he said that it was “about very fundamental questions for our community” and not about investments that it would be nice to be able to make.
The First Parliamentary Managing Director of the SPD parliamentary group, Katja Mast, also does not want to change the pension without deductions after 45 years of insurance. “I don’t see any scope at all at this point,” Mast said on Deutschlandfunk on Monday morning. This is mostly about people who started working life at the age of 16 or 17. “They deserve our respect,” emphasized Mast. That is why the so-called “pension at 63” will be retained.
The Social Democrats would not allow the FDP to make “pension cuts and cuts in social cohesion” the subject of budget negotiations, said SPD parliamentary group vice-president Achim Post. “The last thing our country needs in this difficult time is a shrinking of social cohesion.”
The budget should be ready in July
The coalition dispute over the federal budget for 2025 continues. It is known that several ministries do not want to comply with the strict savings requirements of Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and have reported additional requirements. Scholz hopes for an agreement by July, i.e. before the parliamentary summer break.
He did this on Saturday evening during a panel discussion Editorial network Germany (RND) in Potsdam clearly. There he also spoke out against cuts for pensioners. “It shouldn’t be at their expense,” said Scholz. He also emphasized: “It is very clear to me that one thing is important for our country, namely that we do not question social cohesion.”
Meanwhile, Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) once again warned against excessive savings in her house’s budget. There have already been significant cuts in the development sector, she said on Sunday evening in the ARD “Report from Berlin”.
“For the security that we need in Germany, we need military security, we need diplomacy, but we also need development cooperation,” she said. “We cannot withdraw from this responsibility if security in Germany is important to us. And that’s important to us, and that’s why development policy is a central part of it.”
FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki, for example, called for cuts here. “I would make massive savings in the development aid budget. Because the first thing is to restore German competitiveness, only then can we help other countries,” he told WELT AM SONNTAG. Minister Schulze’s house has registered almost 12.2 billion euros. According to current financial planning, the budget should fall to around 10.3 billion euros.