Following backlash to his recent comments, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) assured no cuts to statutory pensions at a CDU event. Saxony-Anhalt Premier Sven Schulze (CDU) reiterated demands for pension reform to address East Germany's unique reliance on state pensions.
In the ongoing debate over pension reform sparked by Chancellor Friedrich Merz's remarks last week—where he described statutory pensions as at most 'basic security' for old age—Sachsen-Anhalt's Minister President Sven Schulze (CDU) has intensified calls for East Germany's specific needs to be considered. "In Ostdeutschland ist die Rente nicht die Basisabsicherung, sondern oft die einzige Basis für ein Altern in Würde," he told Stern, noting that most residents there depend solely on state pensions due to fewer company plans and limited private options. The region's average age exceeds 48 years, 3.5 years above the national average.
Schulze emphasized: "Aus all diesen Gründen ist eine auskömmliche Rente existenziell wichtig: für die Menschen, aber auch für den gesellschaftlichen Frieden im Land." He urged the pension commission to incorporate these circumstances.
Responding amid the criticism, Merz assured at Saturday's congress of the Christlich-Demokratischen Arbeitnehmerschaft (CDA) in Marburg: "Es wird mit uns keine Kürzungen der gesetzlichen Renten geben." He reaffirmed the statutory pension as the system's foundation.
The CDA adopted a pension concept to strengthen the three pillars—statutory, company, and private—with Stefan Nacke, head of the CDU/CSU worker wing, advocating a 'Gesamtversorgungsniveau' over net replacement rates.
