SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has declared a higher minimum wage and a pension guarantee as conditions for a coalition he leads.

“I promise the citizens: With me as Chancellor, the minimum wage will be raised to 12 euros next year.

And I guarantee: The pension level will remain stable and the retirement age will not continue to rise, ”Scholz told Bild am Sonntag.

This will be a condition for every coalition: “Without that it will not work.

Everyone can rely on a government led by me to do just that. ”Scholz pointed out that the Union did not want to increase the minimum wage or guarantee the level of pensions.

"With a CDU-led government, the pension level would fall in the long run."

Top tax rate 45 percent

For the first time, the SPD candidate for chancellor specifically stated how high the top tax rate for income tax should rise under his government: "The top tax rate, which will only take effect later, could rise by three points to 45 percent," said the Federal Minister of Finance.

No specific percentage is given in the SPD election manifesto.

Scholz emphasized that he wanted to relieve 95 percent of taxpayers in return. Singles who earned less than 100,000 euros gross per year and married people with less than 200,000 euros gross would pay less. Scholz said about it. “We can only finance that by moderately raising taxes for those who earn significantly more. Because people who earn as much as I do or a lot more can make a slightly higher contribution to the financing of our community. "

The regular top tax rate of 42 percent will apply in 2021 from a taxable income of just under 58,000 euros for single persons or 116,000 euros for married couples assessed together.

Furthermore, a tax rate of 45 percent, the so-called "rich tax", already applies to private incomes over around 275,000 euros for single persons and 550,000 euros for jointly assessed persons.

Until 1989 the top tax rate was 56 percent.

Scholz is supposed to appear in front of the committee on Monday

Scholz faces an unpleasant appointment next Monday. The Finance Committee of the Bundestag holds a special session on the search in the Ministry of Finance in connection with the anti-money laundering unit FIU. Federal Finance Minister Scholz should appear in person, demanded CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak in the Bild am Sonntag. “If Mr Scholz does not personally answer parliamentary questions on Monday and prefers to campaign, it would be the next derailment. Then he fools parliament. "

Scholz had announced that he would take part in the hybrid committee meeting via video, which will take place at the request of the FDP, the Greens and the Left. The Federal Finance Minister told the newspaper that an external review of the matter was ongoing with the aim of further improving the processes in the finance ministry's money laundering unit. "The initial weaknesses of the FIU have long been recognized, they have been and will be tackled with determination."

In investigations against the FIU, the Osnabrück public prosecutor had the finance and justice ministries searched.

Scholz then showed himself disgruntled and declared that the public prosecutor could have put their questions to the ministries in writing.

In the course of the clashes, Scholz's confidante and State Secretary for Finance, Wolfgang Schmidt, was also targeted by the authorities.

He had made parts of the search warrant public on Twitter.

The public prosecutor's office then initiated an investigation against Schmidt because the decision should not have been published.

Scholz has been clearly leading the popularity order in polls for the federal election for weeks.

His party is also ahead in the surveys.