After humdrum German campaign, Merkel hopes for fourth term

Decker is among the many German entrepreneurs that are generally pleased with Merkel’s approach to governance: Over the last decade, the chancellor has consistently pushed for broader European integration, and helped to strengthen global economic relations. “The AfD are dividing our country”. “Why would people vote for the copy if they can vote for the original [the AfD]? I can’t decide who to vote for”. “The AfD is like a vacuum cleaner for those unsatisfied with the other parties”, Nico Siegel, head of the infratest dimap German polling agency, told the Washington Post.

The party has been running at between nine and 12 per cent in surveys. “Now it’s really hard to motivate voters to support the SPD”.

Ertem says their party received greater attention among Turkish immigrants in recent days, after it made a decision to use posters of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in its election campaign.

When the United States headed to the polls in November, German newspapers followed the divisive campaign breathlessly for weeks. But then German voters don’t have much choice. This is unfortunate for a number of reasons; on the other hand, it’s not surprising that far-right voters make up something like 5%-10% of the German electorate.

Pre-election polls give her conservative Union bloc a lead of 13 to 17 points over the center-left Social Democrats of her challenger, Martin Schulz.

About a third of German voters admitted in a poll last week they remained undecided about who to vote for days before the election, making the nature of the future coalition government the key question ahead of the vote.

Given this momentum, there is a concerted effort underway by members of Merkel’s cabinet and the “establishment” parties to portray the AfD’s opposition to the Refugee Policy as something unconstitutional or even illegal.

Polls suggest that Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and their Bavaria-only allies, the Christian Social Union, will come in a few points short of the 41.5 percent support they had in 2013 – Merkel’s best result yet.

“Telling people they shouldn’t vote is helping AfD’s campaign”, Justice Minister Heiko Maas said in a video interview with the Bild daily. The local AfD headquarters has been repeatedly vandalised. But they are also being urged to boycott the elections entirely – based on the argument that it is “haram”, a sin, for Muslims to take part in elections at all. However, given Germany has a proportional system, the CDU will most likely be unable to govern by itself, so all eyes are on the battle for the third place, which will have an effect on which party will be Merkel’s coalition partner.

Questioning the AfD’s legitimacy on judicial and constitutional grounds has a two-pronged effect. He says that the AfD is actually sitting in government.

This political witch-hunt is accompanied by a campaign from the mainstream media to stigmatize support for the AfD.

Beaches along the northern coast of Germany still offer “FKK areas”. “But it would be professional suicide and I will never see my grandchildren again”, confessed another anonymous German voter.

Although a surprise can not be ruled out in the wake of any Russian interference, pollsters say they are confident about their surveys, which show Ms. Merkel’s conservatives winning the most seats in the Bundestag lower house.

The BSI federal cyber protection agency said it was keeping a close watch on possible efforts to influence the election from overseas, as well as efforts to close security gaps discovered in a widely-used vote-tabulating software.

The far-right call for election monitors centred on a site with a tiny following called wahlbeobachtung.de, which features demands for a recount if many invalid ballots are found. Photos showing Germany’s many landscapes slide across the screen with slogans like “Our home”, “Our Germany”, and “Our culture”.