Youth wing of conservatives say younger people will be left carrying can for older generation
A row over pension reform is threatening the future of the German coalition government, with a youth wing of the conservatives of chancellor Friedrich Merz gaining support for an attempt to block legislation which they argue will leave younger Germans carrying the can for the older generation.
An 18-strong group of young MPs, the Junge Union, has been accused of holding Merz’s coalition government to ransom over its demands to revise proposed pension reforms, which would guarantee pension increases for the next six years.
Among the rebels who are refusing to vote for the legislation is the 28-year-old grandson of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. Johannes Volkmann, an MP for Lahn-Dill in western Germany, argues that younger generations will be left carrying the burden for retirees and prospective retirees. Merz, who has a slim majority of just 12 in the 630-seat Bundestag faces potential stalemate ahead of the vote due in December.
Volkmann, who has become a mouthpiece not just for the group but for a growing number of disgruntled conservative voters, has said Merz’s proposals to guarantee current pension levels would lead to additional costs of around €120bn until 2040, “which will have to be carried by my generation … this is simply fiscally unsustainable”.
