MOSCOW (Sputnik) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz earns 348,300 euros ($377,800) gross per year, which is the highest salary among the heads of state and government of the European Union, the VSquare investigative media outlet reported on Wednesday.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer ranks second in terms of salary among the EU leaders, earning 306,446 euros gross per year, followed by Prime Minister of Luxembourg Luc Frieden with 256,800 euros, the report said.
Thus, Scholz earns about 5.9 times as much as the average German, according to the data published by VSquare.
At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban receives the highest salary relative to Hungary’s average gross income compared with the other European leaders, earning 191,702 euros gross per year, which is 9.5 times above the average salary in his country, the media outlet reported. He is followed by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico with a gross annual salary of 132,000 euros and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala with that of 130,012 euros, the report said.
«As chancellor, I will run to become chancellor again,» Scholz said at the traditional summer press conference.
Despite the low ratings of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the ruling coalition, as well as the disastrous election results for the SPD in the European Parliament, Scholz has repeatedly spoken about his plans to compete again for the post of chancellor in 2025.
