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BFF-24
GERMANY-PENSION-POLITICS-SOCIAL-GOVERNMENT-PARTIES
German cabinet backs divisive pension hike
BERLIN, Feb 19, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – German ministers officially agreed
Wednesday to pension reforms which for a time threatened to collapse the
coalition between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU and the centre-
left SPD.
From 2021 the government will spend 1.3 billion euros ($1.4bn) a year
topping up the basic pensions of around 1.3 million low-income recipients,
under a law now approved by Merkel’s cabinet for deliberation by MPs.
“The creation of the new basic pension will contribute to more social
justice in our country,” said SPD Labour Minister Hubertus Heil.
The two camps in the ruling coalition were at loggerheads for months over
pensions in a country facing an ageing population.
A flagship SPD policy which the CDU had sought to block, the reform
threatened to blow the government apart before the two sides reached a
compromise in November.
BSS/AFP/RY/1730 hrs