Comment: Merz is playing with the trust of the party's youth - that's risky

The members of the Young Union (JU) wanted to increase the pressure on Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) even further at this year's "Germany Day". That quickly became clear in Bonn on Saturday – and it is the only right thing to do. They are only pledging their support to him if he finally delivers and implements the reform package.

And Merz? The Chancellor showed himself to be self-confident. In an emergency, they should remind the SPD once again who the larger coalition partner is, he said. He does not place "the success of the coalition, or to put it another way, the survival of the coalition above every conceivable political achievement that we must accomplish together."

The Chancellor is once again assuming that the SPD will go along with it in the end. However, current discussions, such as about the "pension at 63," show that this can go wrong. Merz wants the pension reform to pass the cabinet by the end of the year without any changes.

If that fails, the Chancellor will forfeit not only the trust of the population this time, but also that of the Young Union. Even with slight delays, a rebellion threatens him. That the JU members are capable of rebelling was demonstrated by their resistance to concessions to the SPD on pension reform at "Germany Day" last year. Merz now has to deliver.