After AfD victory in Saxony-Anhalt, welfare group calls for reform rethink

The German Social Association has called on the federal government to rethink planned reforms after the AfD won the election in Saxony-Anhalt. Its appeal puts social-policy cuts and pension changes under renewed political pressure.

“We need reforms that reliably protect people, distribute burdens fairly and strengthen public services,” SoVD chair Michaela Engelmeier told the Rheinische Post. She said the government should critically review its planned reductions in social benefits.

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We need reforms that reliably protect people, distribute burdens fairly and strengthen public services.

Engelmeier described the election result as a cause for “great concern” and argued that dissatisfaction and fears of social decline should not be answered by weakening social security. She said future state governments would be judged on whether they support people with disabilities, older people and those affected by poverty, while protecting them from exclusion.

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The answer to dissatisfaction and fears of social decline must not be to call social security into question further.

Martin Werding, an economist and member of the pension commission, warned the government not to draw the wrong conclusions from the state election. “The federal government and the Bundestag must not be deterred,” he said, arguing that officials could examine and adjust the commission’s carefully weighed recommendations if necessary, but should not dismantle the package entirely.

Werding said demographic pressures would fully emerge over the next decade, making reform necessary. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Premier Manuela Schwesig has separately called for a change in direction, saying the planned abolition of the pension available without deductions after 45 years of contributions, known as the pension at 63, would be wrong. Werding also warned that anti-immigration AfD policies could affect social funds because current pension and social-contribution projections rely on continued high net immigration, while actual figures have already fallen significantly in recent years.

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The federal government and the Bundestag must not be deterred.