IPE DACH Briefing: Germany’s AfD sets party’s pension plans

AfD’s capital funded pension plans – Altersvorsorge-Fondssparplan and Junior-Spardepot – give an idea of the direction that the pension policy of Germany’s far-right political party might take if it gains seats in Parliament after the country’s general elections next year.

The party has transitioned since its inception in 2013 from fighting against the common currency (euro), during the sovereign debt crisis, to an anti-immigration force, denying climate change.

Opinion polls put the AfD in second place among voters behind the Union, the alliance between the Christians Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), and ahead of the social democrats (SPD).

Nationality requirements and anti-ESG stance are two main aspects of AfD’s pension plans put forward.

Meanwhile the Bundesrat, the constitutional body representing the German states, said the generational capital would fail to stabilise the first pillar pension system, at least in the short term, and cover expenses to pay-out pensions, even considering the government’s optimistic estimates.

Nuclear waste fund KENFO might manage the assets in the generational capital equity fund in the longer term, and not only for a limited amount of time, as written in the government’s reform package, changing its role to become the public sector’s central asset manager.

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, negative returns for the CERN pension fund came as surprise, against an overall positive performance, on average, of Swiss pension schemes last year.

The scheme might have paid the price of an under-exposure to bonds and equities, against the target set by its strategic asset allocation and a higher exposure to real estate and private equity.

The Swiss asset management association, AMAS, has urged asset owners to make asset managers more accountable for stewardship, and boost private market investments with an impact.

The association took the position following the publication of a study conducted by the Institute for Wealth & Asset Management at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), in collaboration with start-up rezonanz and Greenpeace Switzerland, saying that asset managers are failing to assert stewardship strategies.

In Austria, Pensionskassen returned 4.02% in the first half of the year, a result close to the long-term average for a full year of 4.95%, according to the associaiton Fachverband der Pensions- und Vorsorgekassen.

Items to note

• The IPE Real Assets Infrastructure & Natural Capital Global Conference & Awards 2024 will take place in Munich on 12-13 September at the Munich Marriott Hotel.

Luigi Serenelli

IPE DACH correspondent