The push by the general metal boss Stefan Wolf for a pension at 70 is rejected by the traffic light coalition as well as by the Union and social organizations.

"It is a deeply unfair proposal that people with physically demanding jobs and often lower wages finance high-income earners with office jobs for a long retirement," said Andreas Audretsch, Vice President of the Greens in the Bundestag, the editorial network Germany (RND).

Currently, around 15 percent of all older people would die before they even reached the statutory retirement age and many retire early from exhaustion.

"The idea that nurses, steelworkers or firefighters could be allowed to work until the age of 70 shows that not everyone is willing to take the reality of many people's lives into account."

"Anyone who is 67 years old must be allowed to retire," said SPD labor market expert Michael Gerdes.

A further increase in the statutory retirement age would mean a reduction in pensions for many who could no longer work.

"That's unfair." Anyone who can or wants to work longer can use the "flexible pension" on a voluntary basis, which according to the coalition agreement of the traffic light should be made better known and more lucrative.

FDP for flexible retirement age

The FDP parliamentary group advocates a share pension and a flexible retirement age based on the Swedish model.

“Anyone over the age of 60 should decide for themselves when to retire.

Those who leave earlier get less, those who leave later get more,” explained Labor Market and Social Policy Spokesman Pascal Kober (FDP).

The Union faction in the Bundestag also rejects the employer's call for retirement at 70.

“There is no acute need for action to raise the standard retirement age,” said Stephan Stracke, the head of the CDU/CSU working group on work and social affairs.

According to the report, a later entry age is also excluded for the joint general association.

"The demand for a pension at 70 is nothing more than a pension cut with an announcement," said Managing Director Ulrich Schneider.

Many people in strenuous professions, such as in care in particular, would not already reach retirement age and would have to accept deductions.

"In order to finance pensions in a spirit of solidarity and in a way that is future-proof, what is needed instead is the introduction of a citizens' insurance system into which everyone - including the self-employed, freelancers, politicians and civil servants - pays."

The president of the employers' association Gesamtmetall, Stefan Wolf, had advocated a gradual increase in the retirement age to 70 years.

“If you look at the demographic development and the burden on social security and pension funds, then the reserves have been used up.

We will have to work longer and harder," Wolf said.

"We will gradually have to go up to the retirement age of 70 - also because people are getting older," said the head of Gesamtmetall.

Otherwise the system will no longer be financially viable in the medium term.

According to the current legal situation, the age limit for the pension will be gradually raised from 65 to 67 years without deductions until 2029.

Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) rejects a further increase.

As early as May, after a push by economists to retire at 70, he said: "We have agreed in the coalition that we will not increase the statutory retirement age.

And nothing will change that.”