Germany Day of the JU
Merz presents plans for the Union government
26.10.2024Reading time: 3 min.
Friedrich Merz wants to move into the Chancellery for the Union in 2025. He explained at the Junge Union’s Germany Day what projects he would like to implement afterwards.
Eleven months before the federal election, Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz (CDU) presented some key plans in the event of a takeover of government.
As Chancellor, he wanted to abolish incentives for earlier retirement, reduce the number of recipients of citizens’ benefits and impose an immediate hiring freeze for the public service, said Merz on Saturday at the Junge Union’s Germany Day in Halle. Merz is also planning to merge two ministries. As the “most important group of voters”, the Union also wants to woo employees.
The candidate for chancellor emphasized that he wanted to stick to the statutory retirement age of currently 67 years. In addition, there should be no reduction in pensions. “But those who go earlier have to accept that there are bigger discounts,” he added. However, there must be more incentives for those employees who want to work longer. In addition, employees should be encouraged to take care of private, funded retirement provision at an early stage, said the CDU leader.
Health insurance and nursing care insurance also need “fundamental reforms,” said Merz. “A lot more personal responsibility will be necessary.” His party will present detailed concepts for the federal election campaign. “More money will have to flow into both systems.”
In his speech to the Junge Union, Merz also announced that the CDU/CSU would impose a “hiring freeze for the public service” “immediately” after taking over government. This should apply “especially to the federal ministries,” he said.
The CDU leader criticized the traffic light government, particularly by creating new management positions in the public service and by appointing numerous government representatives, “to such an extent that it created additional bureaucracy.” The Union wants to examine all positions of government representatives in the government with the exception of the military commissioner.
Furthermore, if Merz wins the election, he wants to merge the economics and labor ministries and impose a widespread hiring freeze in the federal administration. “Labour market policy is economic policy and not social policy,” he said.
If responsibilities had been combined, no one would have had the crazy idea of introducing citizens’ money. Merz also announced that if he wins the election, he would issue a “bureaucratic moratorium,” in which two regulations would have to disappear if a new regulation was introduced.
In the election campaign, the Union particularly wants to appeal to the “millions of employees who enjoy going to work,” said Merz. “This is the most important group of voters for us,” he added. “Achieving them will determine success or failure in the next federal election.” Given the traffic light coalition’s policies, this group “increasingly has the feeling that other groups – namely the benefit recipients – are receiving greater attention.”
In the election campaign, however, the Union wanted to “commit to the fact that we want to be a meritocratic society,” said the CDU leader. He demanded that the number of citizens’ benefit recipients “must decrease significantly” – especially among refugees, asylum seekers and people who could work. The citizen’s money introduced by the “traffic light” appears too much like an unconditional basic income – “that’s how the majority of those who use it understand it,” he criticized.
Merz also announced that he would make migration policy an election campaign issue if the traffic light government was unable to significantly reduce the number of immigrants. However, the Union will not do this “with xenophobic undertones” and will clearly differentiate itself from the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist. She will “seek a confrontation with those who are putting the population against each other with talk of ‘repopulation’,” said Merz.
Video | Söder and Merz demonstrate unity – no rapprochement with the AfD