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Germany’s election campaign draws to a close

Voters in the European Union’s most populous nation head to the polls on Sunday.

Said to be the largest political advertisement ever in Germany, the chancellor’s hands form her trademark “Merkel rhombus” next to Berlin’s main train station.

By Sam Bollier

Published On 21 Sep 2013

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Berlin, Germany – The so-called “hot phase” of the country’s election campaign comes to an end today. Tomorrow, tens of millions of Germans will choose among 34 parties and 2,705 candidates to serve in the Bundestag, or federal parliament.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has portrayed her party as the sensible choice to continue Germany’s economic prosperity. Her rivals on the left, however, say her government’s policies have led to inequality, and call for greater social justice.

Meanwhile, Alternative for Germany, a new anti-euro party, hopes to win at least five percent of the vote and make it into parliament for the first time. And Merkel’s coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party – which has seen its support plummet since 2009 – is striving to avoid getting wiped out of the Bundestag altogether.

The Pirate Party, which is strongly opposed to government surveillance, had a somewhat different take on Merkel.
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Sigmar Gabriel (centre), the chairman of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), takes questions at a rally at Potsdam on Monday.
Some Germans have called it a boring election campaign, but the candidates’ rallies would be wurst were it not for the copious amount of meat served.
Merkel and her CDU are riding high in the polls, and she is likely to remain chancellor unless an unlikely coalition of the three biggest left-of-centre parties forms.
“Angie” posters are a commonplace sight at Merkel rallies. In previous elections, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party played the Rolling Stones song “Angie” at campaign events – without their permission, the band charged.
This man was not as impressed with the chancellor’s speech.
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Udo Voigt, a Bundestag candidate for the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany and the former head of the party, spoke at a rally against a plan to house asylum seekers in Berlin’s Treptow-Kopenick neighbourhood. Aside from a few supporters standing behind Voigt, no one was in the audience.
However, several dozen so-called “antifa”, or “anti-fascist”, protesters held a rally 100 metres away to picket the NPD action. The NPD won 1.5 percent of the vote in the 2009 parliamentary elections.
On the last day of the election campaign, Eva Hoegl, a Social Democratic (SPD) candidate for the Bundestag, handed out red roses - the colour of her party - to shoppers in Berlin(***)s Gesundbrunnen Centre.
Hoegl was given a helping hand by Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit.
Meanwhile, outside the mall, Hoegl(***)s Green Party rival, Ozcan Mutlu, chatted with potential voters.