Left Party leader regrets statement on later retirement

Berlin. Left Party co-leader Ines Schwerdtner is correcting her statement on the retirement age. After recently stating on ZDF that a moderate increase in the retirement age under certain conditions was debatable, she now told the "Rheinische Post": "That was a mistake very early in the morning in a sentence. To be clear: All attacks on the retirement age are completely wrong."

Last week on ZDF's "Morgenmagazin," the party leader, responding to the suggestion that experts would support this, coupled with rising life expectancy, said: "If it's a moderate increase, then we can talk about it." However, she addressed the "myth" that people don't work enough in Germany. This is simply not true. Germany doesn't need a retirement age of 70.

In the newspaper interview, Schwerdtner clarified: "Nothing has changed in our program. The retirement age of 67 must be maintained." All debates about retirement at 70 are absurd and represent a de facto pension cut.

RND/dpa