“I promise the citizens: With me as Chancellor, the minimum wage will be raised to twelve euros next year,” he told the newspaper “Bild am Sonntag”. “And I guarantee: The pension level will remain stable and the retirement age will not rise any further.” The Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, wants the CDU / CSU in the opposition.
“It won’t work without that,” said Scholz about the two projects. “Everyone can count on a government I lead to do just that.” On the subject of tax policy, Scholz said that the SPD wanted the top tax rate to take effect later than it is today. At the same time it should be increased: The tax rate “could rise by three points to 45 percent,” said Scholz.
In return, 95 percent of taxpayers should be relieved, he continued. Singles who earned less than 100,000 euros gross per year and married people with less than 200,000 euros gross would pay less. “We can only finance that by moderately raising taxes for those who earn considerably more,” said Scholz.
Bairbock: “right if the Union were to go into opposition”
“I think it would be right if the Union went into opposition,” Baerbock told the “Handelsblatt”. “The Union stands for a standstill in our country and is without leadership and planning.” The Greens co-leader, on the other hand, relies on an alliance with the SPD. “We want to convince many of the undecided voters. In the end it might even be enough for a two-party alliance between green and red,” she says.
The FDP chairman Christian Lindner, in turn, wants to bring his party to third place behind the SPD and Union in the federal election. “The gap to the Greens in third place is only three percentage points,” he told “Bild am Sonntag”. “We want to shorten it and catch up with the Greens. It would be an advantage for talks about coalitions if yellow and green are on par.”
In a new survey by the INSA Institute for “Bild am Sonntag”, the FDP is twelve percent; the Greens come to 15 percent. The SPD is still in first place with 26 percent, the Union with 21 percent. Behind the FDP are the AfD (eleven percent) and the Left (six percent). In other surveys, the FDP is three to five percent behind the Greens.
In the interview, Lindner reiterated his view that a Jamaica coalition of the Union, Greens and FDP would be possible even if the SPD won the elections. “The race for first place is interesting, but not crucial for the formation of a government,” he said. On the other hand, CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt had said to the “Spiegel”: “The government mandate goes to the strongest parliamentary group in the Bundestag.” For a government led by a second-placed Union, “I just lack the imagination”.
