Schwesig calls for fuel price cap and preservation of Germany’s retirement-at-63 rule

Manuela Schwesig says the German government cannot continue as before after the AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt. The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern premier is demanding a rethink of the coalition’s direction, especially on pensions and fuel prices.

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The chancellor and the federal government cannot continue as before.

Schwesig, a Social Democrat, told the Rheinische Post that ending penalty-free retirement after 45 years of contributions, known as retirement at 63, was wrong. “It cannot be that those who worked all their lives and paid into the pension fund are the ones who have to bear the main burden of the pension reform,” she said.

She also called for a cap on fuel prices and an excess-profits tax on oil companies. In an interview with Welt, Schwesig said many people viewed the government’s social reforms as unfair. Reforms were necessary, she said, but those who worked and contributed the most should not carry the greatest burden. She argued that the government needed to change course to achieve greater social justice.

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It cannot be that those who worked all their lives and paid into the pension fund are the ones who have to bear the main burden of the pension reform.

Schwesig has made similar criticisms before. At the end of August, she blamed the federal government in part for the AfD’s high poll numbers and said politicians needed to show people that they took their concerns seriously. She said the prevailing feeling was that the government argued instead of helping.

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The result must serve as a wake-up call.

The issue carries immediate political weight in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which votes on Sept. 20. Recent polls put Schwesig’s SPD narrowly behind the AfD. CDU lead candidate Daniel Peter called the AfD’s state election victory a consequence of polarization and said it should serve as a wake-up call. Union parliamentary leader Thorsten Frei rejected SPD demands to alter the planned reforms, warning that the coalition should not draw the wrong conclusions from the result and should continue its reforms at a fast pace.

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A wrong conclusion would be that the many reforms we have launched should not continue at a fast pace.