Overview
- The SPD sent its draft to CDU negotiator Hendrik Hoppenstedt on Thursday and is pressing for a quick Bundestag decision.
- Without a pause, lawmakers’ base pay would climb 4.2 percent on July 1, adding about €497 a month and lifting salaries from roughly €11,833 to about €12,330 before taxes.
- Parliamentary pay adjusts each July by law using last year’s average wage growth, a mechanism meant to keep politics out of setting salaries.
- SPD leaders say holding the line is needed to rebuild trust during savings measures, and their draft cites a special situation from tight public finances and the Iran war straining the economy.
- CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann backed a pause on ARD’s “Maischberger,” though the Union group has not decided, and a simple-majority law could suspend the rise as in 2020 during the pandemic.