The EDU was able to record success in the cantonal council elections in the canton of St.Gallen. The organic farmer and former school board president Heinz Herzog from Thal was elected to the cantonal council as an EDU representative on the SVP list in the Rorschach constituency. This seat gain enabled the EDU to enter the St. Gallen Cantonal Council for the first time on March 3, 2024.
Failure at the 13th AHV
Things look different with the 13th AHV. It was already clear during the voting campaign that the 13th AHV pension was receiving support from well within the electorate of the bourgeois parties. While the federal government is constantly increasing spending in all possible areas (particularly in asylum and social welfare), fewer and fewer citizens see why, given all these cost explosions, there shouldn’t be more money for their own pensioners.
Problems are coming to a head
Unfortunately, the business associations and the civil parties have not been able to credibly refute this argument. It is now extremely important that the financing burden for the 13th AHV pension is not placed on employed people and the young generation through higher wage percentages and an increase in VAT.
The clear rejection of the pension initiative, which called for the retirement age to be linked to life expectancy, is also regrettable. The challenges that will intensify in the next few years as the “baby boomer generation” enters retirement age are by no means off the table.
The fact remains that fewer and fewer people in employment have to support more and more pensioners. We urgently need solutions that can attract a majority, which ensure the long-term financing of old-age provision without restricting young people’s ability to breathe through ever-increasing additional burdens. In particular, all companies have a duty: you cannot credibly demand a more flexible retirement age while too many workers over 50 are still being sidelined and can no longer find a job.