New Trouble for Merz: East German CDU State Premiers Oppose Pension and Care Reforms
Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces renewed internal party pressure as three East German CDU state premiers—Sven Schulze (Saxony-Anhalt), Mario Voigt (Thuringia), and Michael Kretschmer (Saxony)—send a letter rejecting planned federal reforms to pensions and long-term care. They oppose the abolition of the deduction-free pension after 45 years of contributions, arguing that those who have paid in for 45 years have contributed enough. The premiers also demand that long-term care remain affordable in low-income retirement areas, criticizing planned increases in individual co-payment shares. This resistance comes shortly after Merz completed a major personnel reshuffle within the Union, and ahead of key state elections in September in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Berlin. Previously, only SPD state premier Manuela Schwesig had opposed the pension changes, without support from her party leadership.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection