Debate over Germany's pension age threatens to destabilise coalition

A row has erupted within Germany's fractious government after the economy minister called for the retirement age to be raised to 70 in an attempt to preserve the country's unsustainable pension system.

- Deborah Cole

The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population since taking office in May, preferring instead to announce sweeteners such as tax breaks for older Germans to continue working beyond the retirement age.

However, his economy minister, Katherina Reiche of the Christian Democrats (CDU), a former energy executive who grew up in the communist east, has stepped into the breach with repeated calls this summer to get real about old-age benefits.

"Demographic change and ever-increasing life expectancy make it unavoidable: the lifetime labour period must increase," she told the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung late last month. "We have got to work more and longer."