Finance
Germany's Merz musters enough votes to pass pensions bill without opposition aid
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 8, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 8, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Germany's coalition passed a contentious pensions bill without opposition aid, overcoming internal conservative dissent and Left Party abstentions.
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)
A pension is a retirement plan that provides a regular income to individuals after they retire, typically funded by contributions from employees and employers during their working years.
A parliamentary bill is a proposal for new legislation or an amendment to existing laws that is presented for debate and approval in a parliament.
Explore more articles in the Finance category
