Top candidates push for last votes ahead of German election

BERLIN, Sept. 25 (BUS): Olaf Schultz and Armin Laschet, the two likely-to-be German chancellors, made their final campaign appearances later on Saturday before Sunday’s election.

Opinion polls show there is little margin between the two, with moderate leftist Schulz leading conservative Laschet by just 3 percentage points, German news agency dpa reported.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led Europe’s largest economy for nearly 16 years, supports fellow Christian Democrat Laschet at an event in his home city of Aachen on the French border.

Schulz of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) near the capital, with a final event in the state of Brandenburg.

The third candidate for chancellor, Annalena Barbuk of the Green Party, officially concluded her campaign on Saturday. Now sitting in the far third in the polls, she is seen as unlikely to have a shot at the chancellorship.

But her party is expected to significantly improve its electoral share compared to the last election in 2017, and is even expected to be part of a future coalition government.

Most observers expect the outcome of the vote to be a three-way coalition, but it is not clear who will be in it.

If Laschet’s bloc of Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) wins, it will likely be a centre-right coalition.

If the SPD wins, then Germany can swing slightly or strongly to the left, depending on who Schulz chooses as his coalition partners.

Another option is for Germany to continue its current “grand alliance” between the SPD and the CDU/CSU.

NS