DGB chief Fahimi rejects key pension reform proposals as commission hands over report

Commission proposals

The government-appointed pension commission is handing over its 33 recommendations to the federal government at the Chancellery today. The proposals, which became public over the weekend, include a gradual rise in the retirement age over coming decades, the abolition of the so-called "Rente mit 63" (pension at 63 for those with 45 contribution years), linking the retirement age to life expectancy, and the introduction of a mandatory capital-funded pension. The black-red coalition must now decide whether to implement the recommendations.

Fahimi's criticism

DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi, speaking on the "Ronzheimer" podcast, rejected central elements of the report. She called the abolition of the early retirement without deductions a mistake.

“I think it is a mistake if the report of the pension commission says that the length of contribution years plays no role in the claim. That is not fair.”

Fahimi noted that those who use the early retirement option have paid contributions for an average of 47 years, not just 45. She also dismissed the debate on raising the retirement age as "not helpful", warning that a higher age would increase the number of people unable to work until retirement. The claim that people must work longer because the pension system is otherwise unaffordable she called "a legend to scare people".

Merz and the DGB congress

Fahimi also defended the delegates who booed Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the DGB congress on 12 May. Merz, the first CDU chancellor to address the congress in eight years, had called pension reform the "hardest plank" of the coalition and said it was not malice but "demography and mathematics" that made cuts necessary.

“To just blurt out at people: 'There will be less in the future and that's a law of nature and you didn't understand mathematics' is, honestly, a pretty cheeky remark, and then you can't be surprised if there's a reaction from the audience.”

Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius had described the negative reactions as human given the crisis and uncertainty in the country.

Political path ahead

The commission's report now lands in a politically charged environment. Fahimi's opposition signals that trade unions will resist core elements of the reform. The coalition government, led by Merz's CDU and the SPD, faces a difficult legislative process with the pension system's financing under growing demographic pressure.