Germany’s political parties have started their campaigns in a bid to win the election scheduled for February, ditching plans of a comprehensive reform of the country’s three-pillar pension system while relaunching old pension policies ideas with little detail on how to implement them.
The Union, the alliance of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), tipped to win the general election, has promised to maintain the level of pensions and contributions stable, and to stick to the current retirement age without cutting pensions – an issue that contributed to toppling the traffic-light coalition government of the Greens, social democrats (SPD) and liberal party (FDP).
The Union plans incentives for savers choosing to work longer through the Aktivrente (active pension) concept, already put forward by the CDU, it said in its electoral programme “Policy change for Germany”.
The Union will also work to strengthen private and company pensions supporting in particular small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), it said without giving further detail.
The Union also plans to introduce mandatory pension schemes for the self-employed, according to the electoral programme.
As in the electoral campaign in 2021, the Greens are proposing a public fund (Bürgerfonds), funded “through loans from the federal budget and the transfer of own funds from the government” and investing according to ESG standards in European start-ups, according to the party’s electoral party draft.
The state fund is also the vehicle to fund private pensions as well as company pensions, according to the Greens.
The liberal party (FDP) will continue to push for the equity pension (Aktienrente) based on the Swedish premium pension model, and a retirement savings account (Altersvorsorgedepots) for private pensions, according to the party’s general elections programme.
Meanwhile, SPD will continue to support stable pensions at 48% of an early retirement for people with 45 years of contributions, and oppose to increasing the retirement age.
The SPD will work to pass laws to increase the take up of company pensions without guarantee but with higher return expectations under collective bargaining agreements, and for low earners, a reference to the bill drafted in the current legislative period to reform the second pillar pension system.
The social democrats propose to provide public funds for private pensions only for new products whose costs are transparent and capped, focusing on middle-low income people, it added.
Germany’s right-wing party – Alternative for Germany (AfD) – intend to increase the average level of pensions, introduce compensations for increasing contributions through tax cuts for employees and companies — a flexible retirement age without deduction after 45 years of contributions.
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