2024-09-09 23:49:26
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pushing for the pension reform to be passed quickly by the Bundestag. However, he criticizes experts who criticize the package.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is insisting on the rapid adoption of pension reform by the Bundestag. “That has to happen. Everyone knows that,” the SPD politician told the “Tagesspiegel”. The FDP recently expressed a need for talks.
“There is a firm agreement that the second pension package will be discussed quickly in parliament and passed before the 2025 budget in November,” Scholz said. “The fact that we guarantee stable pensions is one of the central projects on which this coalition is based.”
With the second pension package approved by the cabinet in May, the federal government wants to fix the pension level at 48 percent, among other things. However, the law still has to be passed by parliament.
When asked whether the pension package was a red line for him, Scholz replied that German citizens were entitled to stable pensions. “Anyone who leaves school at 17 and then has to work and pay contributions for five decades wants to have certainty about their pension.”
Scholz rejected the objection that this would primarily burden the younger generation. This was “the opinion of an exclusively establishment-oriented expert community that has its ducks in a row.” This is also demonstrated by the dispute over the pension without deductions after 45 years of contributions. “A lot of academics are against this, who start working and paying contributions at the earliest at 25 or 26 and never reach 45 years of contributions themselves.”
However, they wanted to take away from those who started working much earlier and have been paying contributions for much longer “the chance to retire two years earlier without any reductions after a long working life. For me, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Scholz continued.
Part of the second pension package is also the so-called generation capital, for which time is running out, Anja Mikus told t-online. She is the head of the fund for financing nuclear waste disposal (Kenfo), which is also intended to invest the generation capital profitably. “In order for things to get started this year, we need the ‘go’ in November if possible,” said Mikus. “As long as there is no generation capital foundation, we cannot invest any money. So first the law must be passed and the foundation set up.” The initial investment requires a certain amount of lead time.
“It is important that the loan of 12 billion euros provided for in the federal budget is paid out this year,” Mikus continued. “Actually, 10 billion euros were already provided for last year. Looking back, we could have invested more than 10 percent of that. The longer we wait for the starting signal, the more returns the generation capital could miss out on.”