Merkel, Schulz urge undecided Germans to vote with far right gaining
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, poised to win a fourth term in Sunday’s election, urged supporters on Saturday to keep fighting for votes with a third of the electorate still undecided.
Merkel’s call was echoed by her centre-left challenger Martin Schulz of the Social Democrats, now in an unwieldy “grand coalition” with her conservatives.
Merkel is widely expected to cruise to re-election with the Social Democrats trailing by double digits but the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could emerge as the third largest party, complicating the make-up of her next coalition.
A new INSA poll published by Bild newspaper showed declining support for both Merkel’s conservatives, who dropped two percentage points to 34 per cent, and the SPD, down one point to 21 per cent.
The anti-immigrant AfD, meanwhile, gained two percentage points to 13 per cent, which would make it the first far-right party to enter parliament since the end of World War Two.
Merkel, speaking to supporters in Berlin before heading to her home constituency in northern Germany, called for a final push to drum up votes by focusing on conservatives’ commitment to support for families, a pledge to avoid tax increases and a focus on increasing security in Germany.