President striving to achieve broad consensus on pension reform

President Petr Pavel on Thursday mediated talks between the ruling parties and the opposition on the government’s pension reform plans so as to try to pave the ground for a broad consensus. He said the talks had been constructive and the two sides were in agreement that a pension reform is inevitable and that the retirement age will have to be gradually increased. The debate on how pensions should be calculated and the possibility of early retirement for people working in hazardous professions remains open. President Pavel entered the dispute as a mediator after the opposition slammed the government’s proposals as asocial and said they would cancel some of the measures if they win the 2025 elections.