Among the 33 proposals — all of which Merz promised to implement rapidly — are a mandatory capital-funded pension savings scheme modeled on the Swedish system and a link between the retirement age and average life expectancy, under which the retirement age would rise by about six months each decade from 2032.
“The retirement age will be 70 years old starting in 2092 at the earliest,” a summary of the report reads.
The reform is one of a series of urgent, long-delayed measures — spanning tax policy, pensions and long-term care insurance — that Merz and the leaders of his conservative-led government have vowed to agree on in the coming weeks. The aim is to show that the unpopular and at times fractious coalition remains capable of governing as support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right opposition party, continues to grow.
Bärbel Bas, a leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which governs in coalition with Merz’s conservatives, also pledged swift implementation of the commission’s recommendations. She argued that the proposals formed a comprehensive package and that individual measures could not be cherry-picked to suit ideological preferences.
“I want to make it clear here: I want to implement this package,” Bas, who is also labor minister and thus responsible for the file, said alongside Merz. “To do so, we will certainly need to get the support of the parliamentary groups within our own ranks. That’s important because, in the end, it has to be approved by the German Bundestag.”