Blüm adhered to Christian values and belonged to the left wing of the generally centre-right CDU. Blüm was strongly influenced by the
Jesuit social philosopher
Oswald von Nell-Breuning, one of the founders of the modern
Catholic social teaching who lectured in
Frankfurt. Nell-Breuning taught Blüm about the main three pillars "subsidiarity", "solidarity" and "charity". During his time in office, Blüm held out and pushed back against demands by fellow CDU politicians to raise the federal retirement age from 65 to 70. A popular quotation attributed to him is "Die Rente ist sicher" (loosely translated as: "Pensions are safe"), based on the governmental slogan he wielded in 1986: "Eins ist sicher: Die Rente" ("One thing is safe: pensions"). Blüm once said that "politics is a struggle". "Whoever is in search of harmony must look for another profession. (...) But if you want to change something, you cannot please everybody." Core issues of his politics were
social justice and the fight against
unemployment. For Blüm, "the little people" were important, which is why he tried to prevent a division of society into rich and poor with his politics. Blüm was an outspoken critic of
Scientology. As a consequence, he was targeted by Scientology advocates, who would claim that the organization was a victim of religious
discrimination in Germany. Despite his good relationship with Helmut Kohl, Blüm criticized his handling of the
CDU donations scandal. After his departure from the Bundestag in 2002, he continued to comment on political issues publicly. Because of his criticism of
Israel in the
Middle East conflict, he was sometimes accused of
antisemitism, which he rejected. In 2016, he criticised the CDU's refugee policy because of the cold-hearted discussion about refugees. During the refugee crisis, the former minister visited the Greek refugee camp
Idomeni in 2016 and heavily criticized the EU's treatment of refugees ("This kind of brutality is unworthy of European culture"). Out of solidarity he slept one night in the
refugee camp. In 2016 he opposed an unconditional
basic income, on which
Switzerland held a
referendum at this time. It would be "unfair" and an "attempted escape from welfare state responsibility". ==Personal life==