Germany's 'Grumpy Old Man' Fights Pension Cuts

He is Germany's "grumpy old man" and his thunderous attacks on the government for daring to trim pensions can be felt all the way across the country.

Walter Hirrlinger, head of Germany's most powerful lobby, doesn't care if Gerhard Schroeder or politicians in the capital detest him for his loud and unrelenting criticism even though he is, like the chancellor, a Social Democrat.
"So what?" Mr Hirrlinger snarls when asked about being members of the same party. "He doesn't have a clue about pensioners. He'd better wake up. My motto is those who snooze lose."

German media portray 77-year-old Mr Hirrlinger as a raging old man leading a movement of angry old people. But for many, his merciless attacks on the government have made him a folk hero.

"My only mission is to help people," said Mr Hirrlinger, whose VdK pensioners lobby has 1.3 million members and represents some 20 million retirees - a third of the electorate.

"It's scandalous and indecent the way the government has gone after the small incomes of the pensioners," he said in an interview before delivering another heated speech to 650 senior citizens in the western town of Altlussheim next to the Rhine River.

"Pensioners are seeing the hard-earned fruits of their labour picked right out of their pockets," said Mr Hirrlinger. "We're not going to put up with that.
There will be a price to be paid come election day."

Tens of thousands of whistle-blowing pensioners - including some in wheelchairs and many leaning on walking sticks - have taken to the streets to protest government pension cuts.

"There's hardly a group in Germany whose interests are as well represented as pensioners," wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. "Hirrlinger and his organisation defend their interests tooth and nail."

Mr Hirrlinger, a retired Labour Minister in the regional southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said the VdK-led protests will continue and spread in the months ahead.

"I've never seen so much outrage, disappointment and dissatisfaction with a government," said Mr Hirrlinger, who has led the VdK for 14 years. VdK membership has grown by 200,000 in the last two years. He gets up to 100 letters of support each day.

"The people are fed up. It's not like we don't see there's a need for some cutbacks. But it's the sum of so many different cuts here and there that are enraging the people. There have been 23 negative moves against pensioners in the last 30 years."

Mr Schroeder, trying to plug budget holes and faced with a shrinking workforce, froze pensions this year and increased charges for health care as part of his "Agenda 2010" reforms.

Because pensioners now have to pay more for nursing care insurance, pension levels actually fell this year in April by about €8 a month for the first time, Mr Hirrlinger said.

Economists cheered the move, saying it was a first if small step to rescue the under-funded pension system. But Mr Hirrlinger and the VdK have gone on the war path.

"The very people who built this country up and got it back on its feet after the war are being told 'Tough luck, there's not enough money'," said Mr Hirrlinger, who has used crutches since being wounded by a Russian sniper near the end of World War Two.