Germany’s Scholz Lays Down Rules for Future Coalition Allies

  • Favorite to succeed Merkel as chancellor plans to tax the rich
  • Polls show Social Democrat Party set to win next week’s vote

Olaf Scholz during an election campaign meeting in Bavaria, on Sept. 18. 

Photographer: Daniel Karmann/picture alliance/Getty Images

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Olaf Scholz, the German Social Democrat candidate looking to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor after next week’s election, said conditions for a potential coalition partner would include support for taxing the rich.

He’d also require backing for raising the minimum wage to 12 euros ($14) next year, Scholz said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “The pension level will remain stable and the retirement age will not rise any further,” he said.