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Young Vs Old? How a fight over pensions is shaking the German government

38:56

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November 21, 2025

18 young conservative MPs have rebelled against the pension reform - threatening the coalition between conservatives and social democrats. Is this Friedrich Merz’s biggest stability test yet? DW’s Michaela Küfner, Nina Haase and Steven Beardsley break down the demographics, the economics, and the political drama behind Germany’s pension showdown.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:51 Young rebel MPs

02:02 Pension reform

04:15 Social Democrats

06:10 Merz’s dilemma

07:30 Minority government?

09:00 €500 billion in infrastructure

13:00 Demographics

10:00 Options

23:10 Bärbel Bas

24:10 Broken promises

27:10 Solutions?

39:41 Economic prognosis

30:15 Stability

38:10 End

 

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