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Candidate between candidates: Annalena Baerbock, Olaf Scholz (l) and Armin Laschet before the start of the last TV triumph
Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images
In one week, the citizens of Germany will vote for a new Bundestag.
Before that, Armin Laschet, Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock - the candidates for the Chancellery - met for the third and final TV triall.
Right at the beginning they fell out over the question of whether there should be a minimum wage of 12 euros in Germany.
In order to close the gap between rich and poor, Scholz and Baerbock demanded this unanimously.
"There are ten million citizens who benefit from a minimum wage of twelve euros because they then earn a little more," said Scholz.
Baerbock also advocated basic child security, financed from a tax for the wealthy - couples with an income of more than 200,000 euros.
Scholz agreed with her.
He, too, wants to levy higher taxes on people with very high incomes to relieve lower incomes.
Laschet, on the other hand, spoke out strictly against tax increases and a minimum wage of 12 euros.
He wanted to give the unions the freedom to negotiate wages themselves.
The professions are too different to set a uniform wage: "A general minimum wage, (...) I don't think that's appropriate."
The Union candidate admitted, however, that people with the lowest incomes should be better off.
He emphasized that good politics must create more growth and jobs - "and then make the difference between those who earn a lot and those who earn little small in the middle."
»Poverty trap in Germany«
Baerbock then attacked the CDU leader sharply, he was using arguments from the nineties.
Many employees, especially single women, are not in unions and would not benefit from collective bargaining rounds.
A woman who works alone with a child "is a poverty trap in Germany".
The trio on ProSieben, Sat.1 and Kabeleins is the third and last meeting of the three candidates.
Before that, they had already exchanged blows in the trio on RTL / n-tv and another in the trio on ARD / ZDF.
mrc / dpa
