Germany's Merz musters enough votes to pass pensions bill without opposition aid

BERLIN, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition secured a majority on Friday to pass a contentious pensions bill in parliament without opposition aid, despite misgivings within the youth faction of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives.

It had long been unclear whether the coalition, which has a slender governing majority, would be able to muster enough votes itself to pass the bill.

The opposition far-left Left Party had announced it would abstain so that the coalition would need fewer votes overall to achieve a majority.

The parliamentary tally showed, however, that the coalition would have passed the bill even without the Left Party abstentions, as only seven conservative lawmakers voted against the bill.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Markus Wacket, Holger Hansen and Sarah Marsh; editing by Thomas Seythal)