The Bremen mayor, Andreas Bovenschulte of the SPD, has questioned the planned abolition of the pension rule at age 63, following similar pressure from three CDU state presidents from the East. Speaking to the “Handelsblatt”, he stated that the SPD has consistently advocated for employees to be able to retire without penalty after 45 years of contributions. However, he noted that the SPD’s efforts within the pension commission were thwarted by strong resistance from the Union (CDU).
Bovenschulte suggests that if the CDU no longer holds a majority among its members to strike the current rule, there is ample reason to keep the option of retiring after 45 contribution years. He further proposed that potential funding for this protection could come from taxing high levels of assets or by removing the tax privilege currently applied to capital income.
This shift comes after the federal government’s pension commission initially advised abolishing the option of retiring after 45 years. Earlier last week, three Eastern CDU state presidents-Sven Schulze, Mario Voigt, and Michael Kretschmer-suddenly sided with maintaining the pension age of 63. In a joint demand submitted to the federal government regarding pension decisions, the trio asserted: “Whoever has paid in for 45 years has paid enough. We will not abandon this principle.”
