German minister rejects raising retirement age to 70

BERLIN – Germany’s labour minister is rejecting suggestions by conservatives, including the finance minister, that the retirement age should be raised to as late as 70.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble recently suggested that working time should be coupled to rising life expectancy. The youth wing of his Christian Democrats separately said the retirement age should gradually rise from 67 to 70 starting in 2030.

Germany decided a decade ago to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67. That was never popular with supporters of the centre-left Social Democrats, the junior partners in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

Labour Minister Andrea Nahles, a Social Democrat, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper the retirement age won’t be raised to 70 as long as she is in office and that Schaeuble’s idea was unrealistic.