“We are suggesting that no-one should earn over 40 times the societal minimum,” said The Left’s co-leader Katja Kipping in the party’s draft election platform, which was seen by regional newspaper the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung.
The party paper said the total tax on those taking home over €40,000 per month would be used to fund social welfare and investing in the country’s future.
“Explosive inequality is threatening democracy,” said co-leader Bernd Riexinger. “I call capping income at half a million euros a democracy tax.”
The upcoming campaign for Germany’s election in September was going to be one focused on wealth redistribution, said Riexinger.
The Left, born from a merger of former East German communists and disgruntled trade unionists, has struggled to raise its profile under its new leadership after failing to make political capital from the global financial crisis. It sits in the Bundestag and several state parliaments, but failed to win representation in Lower Saxony last month.
Tacking hard to the left with its 100 percent tax idea could mean the party has given up all hope of tempting the centre-left Social Democrats into a coalition at the federal level after this September’s general election.
French President Francois Hollande tried recently to impose a 75 percent tax on top earners, but was struck down by the country’s courts.
DPA/The Local/jcw
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