Grand coalitions for unpopular reforms

At the international level, the policy option of raising the retirement age has become the new focus of the pension reform agenda. [...] In 2004, the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats thus increasingly agreed on the settings of the key instruments: the contribution rate, the federal transfers, and the benefit level. [...] Building a Grand Coalition for a Higher Retirement Age The shift in the pension reform agenda from tax increases and benefit cuts to changes of the eligibility conditions was a necessary but insufficient condition for a formal agreement between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats regarding an increase of the retirement age. [...] The EU’s fiscal constraints, the adoption of the multi-pillar paradigm, and the convergence of pension policy preferences facilitated the building of a formal grand coalition on raising the retirement age. [...] The Grand Coalition’s Agreement on Raising the Retirement Age In order to achieve the goals of stable contributions and poverty-preventing pensions within the EU’s fiscal constraints, they focused on the option of raising the retirement age.