{"id":183470,"date":"2025-12-09T19:46:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/183470\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:46:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:46:31","slug":"german-parliament-passes-contested-pensions-vote-as-merz-sees-off-rebellion-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/183470\/","title":{"rendered":"German parliament passes contested pensions vote as Merz sees off rebellion \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

German<\/a> chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a> saw off a parliamentary rebellion on Friday and narrowly held his coalition together in a controversial pensions vote, after two months of bad-tempered debate.<\/p>\n

Younger MPs within Merz\u2019s own centre-right Christian Democratic Union<\/a> (CDU) had threatened to torpedo what they called an unaffordable Bill to fix state pensions at 48 per cent of previous income.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Merz coalition scraped together a majority of 318 Bundestag MPs in favour of the Bill – just two votes more than at the CDU-lead coalition\u2019s disposal.<\/p>\n

Seven younger CDU members voted against the Bill, the rump of a once 18-strong rebel group. Two CDU parliamentarians abstained and a further MP was absent.<\/p>\n

CDU leader Merz talked up the result as the opening shot in a reform plan to make Germany\u2019s welfare system \u201caffordable, strong and generationally just\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the end of our pension [reform] politics but just the beginning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vice-chancellor Lars Klingbeil, head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) coalition partner, said the \u201cclear result\u201d would \u201censure that millions of pensioners will get an adequate pension\u201d.<\/p>\n

Without this pension agreement, SPD leaders had called into question the future of the coalition after just six months in office.<\/p>\n

Just 597 out of the 630 sitting MPs participated in Friday\u2019s vote. Some 224 MPs opposed and 53 abstained, largely from the opposition Left party.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0German vote exposes Merz weakness and some CDU members\u2019 far-right ambitionsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It instructed its MPs to abstain to lower the majority required to pass the pensions Bill.<\/p>\n

Taken together, a majority of 266 would have carried the Bill. But Merz, aware his authority was at stake, warned backbenchers the Bill needed to pass with the government\u2019s own – so-called \u201cchancellor\u201d – majority.<\/p>\n

Not all younger CDU MPs heeded that warning. Pascal Reddig, 30-year-old chair of the CDU\u2019s youth wing in parliament, refused to back a Bill that \u201cgoes against my fundamental beliefs, against why I do politics and against intergenerational justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition to its multi-billion Bill, younger CDU politicians said the pension Bill pre-empted pension reform recommendations from a state commission, due next year.<\/p>\n

Though a victory for Merz, observers suggested Friday\u2019s vote sent worrying signals about discipline in the CDU parliamentary party \u2013 and the priorities of Merz\u2019s Bundestag floor leader Jens Spahn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a good sign if a ruling party cannot summon its full majority in an existential moment,\u201d said Dr Gero Neugebauer, a Berlin political scientist. \u201cAnd in Spahn, Merz has someone who is thinking more about his own ambitions than the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung protesters hold a banner that reads “No to military conscription” on December 5th in Berlin. Photograph:Maja Hitij\/ Getty Images <\/p>\n

Also on Friday, the Bundestag backed plans for voluntary physicals for young men from next January.<\/p>\n

Part of an armed forces overhaul, the vote triggered protests around the country, with school pupils skipping lessons to protest against the plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German chancellor Friedrich Merz saw off a parliamentary rebellion on Friday and narrowly held his coalition together in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[99452,72,176,8864,292,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-183470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-bundestag","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}