Coalition partner TOP 09 supports raising retirement age

TOP 09, one of the three parties in the ruling government coalition, supports raising the retirement age from 65 to 68, party leader Markéta Pekarová Adamová said on CNN Prima News on Sunday. She stated that comprehensive pension reform is needed so that the pension system does not collapse.

According to Ms Pekarová Adamová, the coalition has not yet agreed on the reform and raising the retirement age is only one of the options. She said, however, that if the retirement age were to be raised, it would only affect people under 40 or 45.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that at the moment, there is one person working for every three pensioners, and spoke about the need to strengthen pro-family policy in order to balance the demographic curve.

The opposition SPD leader, Radim Fiala, said his party does not agree with increasing the retirement age to 68 instead of the current 65.

More than 952,000 men and more than 1.4 million women currently receive old-age pensions from the social security system.