2024-04-15 08:29:54
The opposition and employers are campaigning hard against the traffic light pension reform. The SPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has now had enough – and is calling on its comrades in the federal government to show their colors.
The SPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is defending itself against attacks on the traffic light government’s planned pension reform. At her state party conference this weekend, she wants to pass a proposal that will strengthen the traffic light’s reform plans. The state board’s paper is available exclusively to t-online and is entitled “With us as the SPD, the pension remains reliable and stable for all generations: today, tomorrow and the day after – out of respect for the work done and for a dignified life in old age.”
In it, the comrades emphasize what they see as the most important achievements of the reform: a stabilization of the pension level at at least 48 percent “well into the 2030s”, increasing pensions with rising wages, no privatization of pension provision and the foregoing of an increase in the retirement age, while “contributions remain stable.”
“Good news” for 21 million pensioners
In fact, pension contributions are currently expected to remain stable at 18.6 percent at least until 2027. An increase to 20 percent is planned from 2028, and the rate is expected to rise to over 22 percent in 2030 (you can read more about Pension Package II here).
“Chancellor Scholz and the traffic light are thus fulfilling what we as the SPD promised,” the application continues. Pension package II is “good news” not only for the approximately 21 million pensioners, four million of whom are in the East. But also for those working today, to whom the pension must also offer “respect and security” later on.
Criticism of the traffic light pension reform
There has been criticism of the government’s pension plans for weeks. The CDU in particular, as the largest opposition party, is raising the mood against the reform that Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) presented at the beginning of March. Union parliamentary group vice-president Jens Spahn accused the traffic light of canceling the generational contract and said the reform was “built on sand”. The AfD called the package “pretty crazy.”
Critical tones can also be heard from employers. The Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) called the package the “most expensive social law of this century” and called for the reform to be stopped. Criticism also came from the Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA).
“Disrespectful attacks”
In its application, the SPD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is now defending itself against this criticism. “The pay-as-you-go pension system, which is often declared dead by neoliberal and right-wing populist naysayers, is alive and is currently doing much better than predicted thanks to the robust situation on the labor market.” There are more employees and contributors in Germany today than ever before. Good pension policy is therefore, above all, “effective securing skilled workers and labor market policy” in order to have as many contributors as possible in the future.
The “political attacks on the retirement age” from the ranks of the CDU and the AfD are “disrespectful” towards those who “simply want to retire without cuts after decades of hard work,” the application continues. “At the end of a hard working life, many people simply can’t physically do it anymore.” For these people, proposals for zero pensions and indirect pension cuts are “simply a mockery”.
Call to the comrades in the federal government
As far as political support for the traffic light pension reform is concerned, there is apparently still room for improvement among party members in Berlin. The motion also makes an appeal to the comrades in the federal government: “We call on the SPD in the federal government and in the Bundestag and support them to unwaveringly advance and implement pension package II in the interests of the people.”