The German government thinks ‘failure is not an option’ in its quest to raise the retirement age

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged Tuesday to push through a proposed reform of the country’s creaking pension system that would include raising the retirement age gradually in line with life expectancy, declaring that “failure is not an option.”

Merz’s coalition of center-right and center-left parties took office just over a year ago with pledges to reform and turn around Germany’s sluggish economy, Europe’s biggest. It has since become deeply unpopular, in part because of perceptions that it has squabbled but so far achieved little.

Germany’s economy returned to modest growth last year after shrinking for two years in a row. The government expects underwhelming growth of 0.5% this year, a figure that has been pushed down by the fallout from the war in Iran.

The country of 83.5 million people already faced increasing competition from Chinese companies, higher energy........

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