These are good times for Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil and thus for pensioners.

Shortly before the "small federal elections" in North Rhine-Westphalia, the social democrat is back in the limelight as the patron saint of the elderly.

He brings you one of the largest and most expensive pension adjustments in decades, in the west there are 5.3 and in the east 6.1 percent, although he has to use an old damping factor under pressure from the FDP.

He also uses the necessary law for higher disability pensions.

The energetic minister need not fear the opposition.

During the Merkel years, the Union learned to beat the SPD with their own means.

Instead of criticizing Heil's plans, black social politicians are competing with leftists and the AfD to see who promises more to retirees.

The Union demands that these too should benefit from the €300 energy relief.

Heil likes to transform the beautiful template in order to turn out to be the advocate of solid state finances for a change.

Grotesque, because consideration for the federal budget is the last thing you can associate with Heil's old, new pension and labor market policy.

So what should a union that doesn't curry favor with the elderly have to say against Heil's pension plan?

For example, that this pension increase is not as "deserved" as previous ones.

The astonishing increase is due to the fact that the state has been supporting short-time work with billions since the pandemic, and thus wages.

The distortion should be addressed to make it clear that the government is using its leeway in favor of pensioners, possibly in the near future in the Ukraine crisis.

What is the Union's position on this?

She could also denounce the disability pension.

The traffic light has just as little money for this as the grand coalition before it.

Heil's bold statement that external security should not be played off against social peace would also be worth countering.

This is intended to stifle criticism of the welfare state agenda, which has continued to expand despite the war.

But in order to secure social peace, there is no need for new basic income and no basic child security.

It is enough if the existing aid for the needy is quickly adjusted to the higher costs for food and energy.