Markus Söder, the chair of the CSU, sharply dismissed criticism of the broadened maternity pension that he had championed at his party’s political event on Ash Wednesday.
Speaking in Passau on Wednesday, the Bavarian premier said, “There has been an almost arrogant campaign-especially from people on very high pensions being shown on television-against this. For me and for us, the respect and lifetime contributions of ten million German women are of utmost importance”.
He was referring to the generation that raised children in the 1970s and 1980s. “Those women today receive the smallest pensions, because in Bavaria there was limited child‑care provision and rural employment was not as successful as it is now”.
Söder added that “these women have raised their children wonderfully and now save so much that they can give gifts to their grandchildren”. At the same time he pointed out that in recent years newcomers to the country have come into the neighbourhood who receive everything, even though they have paid nothing into social funds. “That cannot be” he said. “It is not fair”.
