Chancellor Olaf Scholz once pushed through an increase in the minimum wage. Explains why the SPD now seems to be caught up in the curse of good deeds star– Columnist Nico Fried.
As SPD leader, Lars Klingbeil sometimes seems older than he is (45). He likes to indulge in large-scale foreign policy analyzes and pretends to follow coalition affairs like a long-serving coach from the sidelines. Sometimes he also gives grades. But now even Klingbeil has noticed that the SPD is getting into serious trouble on one issue: the minimum wage.
It was October 2017 when Olaf Scholz was the first to demand that his party support a minimum wage of twelve euros. That was easy at the time, because everyone thought that Germany would soon be governed by a Jamaican coalition. Things turned out differently, and Scholz became Vice Chancellor. But he saved the twelve euros for the 2021 election campaign. And after his victory, he put them through.