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German lawmakers okay pension reform

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January 27, 2001 

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's lower house of parliament passed a long-delayed overhaul of the national pension system Friday after a storm over an opposition poster depicting Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a criminal accused of ``pension fraud.'' 

The reform trims benefits and would have the government promote private retirement savings for the first time, aiming to keep a 19th-century pillar of Germany's generous social welfare system solvent as the population ages. Labor Minister Walter Riester, the architect of the plan, called it the ``largest social reform in the postwar era.''

Opposition leader Angela Merkel raised the most emotions during Friday's debate when she expressed regret for the poster — but stopped short of the direct apology demanded by Schroeder's Social Democrats.

``We didn't want to criminalize the chancellor, but in effect that happened,'' said the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats. ``I regret that it could have been understood that way.''

The picture — showing Schroeder in two profiles and from the front in black and white — hadn't even been posted anywhere before drawing fire even from inside Merkel's party. The opposition scrapped the poster Wednesday, a day after unveiling it.

Riester refused to accept Merkel's statement and accused her party of using politics for ``defamation.''

Schroeder taunted the opposition for his government's progress towards pension reform where earlier conservative administrations had failed.

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