BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s governing coalition has delayed a decision on a pension reform that has become a central ideological battleground, adding to questions over how long the government will last.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Union bloc leads a bad-tempered coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats.
The two sides are struggling to find a compromise on a project to top up the pensions of low-paid people who have worked for at least 35 years. The Social Democrats say such payments should be made without means-testing, which the Union insists on.
A meeting scheduled for Monday to seal a compromise was delayed until Sunday. Social Democrat secretary-general Lars Klingbeil told ZDF television the coalition must agree on the project imminently and indicated that keeping the coalition going will otherwise be “a great deal more difficult.”
The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
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