Germany’s Mütterrente is a poor way to pay parents
A recession is not the time to raise benefits for those who had kids long ago
GERMANY’S constitutional debt brake has led to chronic underinvestment, so Friedrich Merz’s move to exempt both a €500bn ($539bn) infrastructure fund and defence expenditure over 1% of GDP is good news. But the looser purse strings of Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting have emboldened the parties in his expected coalition to offer goodies to voters. One is likely to be an expansion of the Mütterrente (”mothers’ pension”), a benefit to compensate parents for years spent raising children rather than working. It is almost exclusively claimed by women.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The mysterious Mütterrente”
Europe
April 5th 2025- Marine Le Pen’s ban polarises France
- The prospect of early elections in Ukraine has everyone in a spin
- Russia’s army is being subordinated to its security services
- Irish willingness to join NATO could ease unification
- Germany’s Mütterrente is a poor way to pay parents
- Europe cannot fathom what Trumpian America wants from it
From the April 5th 2025 edition
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Ukraine’s political infighting gets nasty
As Trump starves it of arms, there is turmoil inside the government
Turkey’s strongman is becoming Donald Trump’s point man
But renewed war with Iran would put the honeymoon with Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the test
Germany’s Bundestag bars AfD MPs from its football team
Could the sporting ban precede a political one?
An infestation of ticks menaces Istanbul
And mosquitos are a growing problem too
The sleeping policeman at the heart of Europe
Enforcement of EU law has become an afterthought
A pragmatic amnesty for separatists benefits Catalonia
But it carries costs for the rule of law