The dispute within the Union over the expansion of the mothers' pension (Mütterrente) has flared up again. While CSU parliamentary group leader Alexander Hoffmann ruled out reversing the plan, the CDU's social wing renewed its call to do exactly that. Doubts had previously also been raised within the CSU itself, which had pushed the measure through in the coalition agreement.
"The completion of the mothers' pension is agreed in the coalition's first pension package, it will come," Hoffmann told the Augsburger Allgemeine (Saturday edition). "Its implementation is a matter of justice and credibility." Women with small pensions in particular needed to be able to rely on the fact that "what we have politically decided holds."
The chairman of the CDU's social wing, Dennis Radtke, rejected the argument that the mothers' pension expansion would reduce old-age poverty. "The mothers who most urgently need those 19 euros won't receive them anyway, because the amount is offset against the basic pension," he told newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe.
Given the pressure to cut social spending, he said he considered the plan to be wrong. It was not justifiable for politicians to discuss fundamental changes and painful cuts on one hand while declaring a political "prestige project" untouchable on the other. "It is good that things are now beginning to shift within the CSU on this issue," he said.
CSU leader Markus Söder had pushed through the mothers' pension expansion during coalition negotiations, despite reservations from both the CDU and SPD. It has since been legislated and is due to take effect on 1 January 2027. Most recently, however, the plan has also been called into question within the CSU leadership itself.
Following party vice-chairman Manfred Weber, former Bavarian transport minister Hans Reichhart also came out against it. The CSU treasurer told Bayerischer Rundfunk on Friday that the forthcoming social reforms must also include the willingness to sacrifice "sacred cows" such as the mothers' pension. In discussions about welfare reform, he said, one must "start from zero" and call certain past projects into question.
Under the expansion, mothers who gave birth before 1992 would receive three pension points in recognition of their child-rearing contribution. Mothers of children born from 1992 onwards already receive this credit. The annual cost of the expansion is estimated at around five to six billion euros.
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