Scholz launches working group with opposition to discuss migration
Following the deadly knife attack in Solingen last week, and CDU leader Friedrich Merz’s offer to work together on migration, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has announced a planned series of talks with the states and the CDU/CSU – the largest opposition party – about how to tackle issues.
According to the chancellor’s plan, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) will invite representatives from the federal ministries as well as representatives from the Union to a number of confidential and targeted talks on this issue. Scholz announced the plans after a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Berlin.
The talks are to focus on plans for deporting rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin, and the fight against Islamist terror, as well as the right to carry certain types of weapons in public places.
The establishment of this working group appears to come as a reaction to statements by Merz, who had initially spoken in favour of a SPD – CDU meeting to cooperate on security issues. But the group Scholz proposed is significantly larger and includes representatives from the states.
For now the working group’s initial meeting is not yet scheduled. The coalition plans to present an initial package of security measures ahead of the first meeting.
German boys die after dune collapse at Danish beach
Two German boys have died after being buried at the weekend by a dune landslide at a beach in Denmark, police said on Wednesday.
The children, aged nine and 12, were digging a hole on a beach in North Jutland on Sunday when the dune collapsed, burying them.
Police said health authorities reported the boys died Tuesday evening, adding that they considered the incident a “tragic accident.”
Media reports said the boys, who were on holiday with their families from the Munich area, were trapped under the sand for up to 40 minutes during efforts to dig them out.
In a separate incident on Sunday, another young boy got caught in a dune landslide in southwestern Jutland, but he was pulled out quickly and unharmed.
Following the incidents, Danish authorities urged people to exercise caution around dune areas on the west coast as recent heavy rains had made the dunes unstable.
Cash bonus planned for those who take later retirement
Anyone who works at least one year longer than the standard retirement age should receive a “pension deferral bonus” in future under German government plans.
The idea is that anyone who postpones the start of their pension and is employed for at least 12 months is to be rewarded with a one-off payment in the amount of the pension payments he or she has missed out on.
The coalition government foresees that this would be paid out in one go when retirement actually begins.
In addition there is a premium because the pension insurance company did not have to pay health insurance contributions on the pension during this time – currently this is 8.15 percent. The factor depends on the current contribution rates and employees can accumulate the premium for a maximum of three years.
This is “a new benefit of its own kind from the statutory pension insurance scheme”, according to a government draft paper.
The government plans to introduce the regulation in January 2027, giving time for organisations to prepare.
The aim is to encourage more people to work and pay into the social security system amid the worker shortage.
German Health Ministry proposes the ‘healthy heart law’
Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 348,000 people died of heart disease last year, which corresponds to a third of all deaths.
Health minister Karl Lauterbach has a plan to ramp up preventative medicine for heart and cholesterol issues with a newly proposed draft law.
“We must better protect the health of the hearts,” Lauterbach said.
His plan amounts to several measures which include additional medical tests for children to identify congenital heart issues early on, as well as obliging health insurers to provide heart exams from earlier ages and more often. Treatment for high cholesterol with statins is also to be made more accessible.
In terms of life expectancy, Germany is significantly lower than in other Western European countries at 80.6 years in 2022, despite high medical spending. Also, billions are being spent each year on care for cardiovascular cases.
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The health ministry hopes that by encouraging better prevention, the new law could ultimately save money in the Federal budget.
Starmer urges European allies to meet far-right ‘challenge’
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday he fears a rise of the far right in Britain and suggested progressive parties across Europe should jointly fight populism.
Starmer made the comments in Germany where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to make big gains in regional polls on Sunday, dealing a blow to centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“I do think that we should be alive in the UK to the challenge of the far-right and populism and nationalism,” Starmer told reporters in Berlin following a meeting with Scholz.
“There are a number of reasons for my concern – partly what’s happening in the UK, partly what you can see happening in other European countries, including in France and in Germany.”
UK Labour Party leader Starmer swept to power in a landslide general election win against the Conservatives early last month, in a rare recent triumph for a European centre-left party.
The poll, however, also saw the anti-immigration Reform UK party capture 14 percent of the vote — one of the largest shares for a hard-right British party in UK electoral history.
With reporting by DPA, Paul Krantz and Rachel Loxton
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