Merkel woos voters as SPD struggles with new scandal

Supporters of Germany’s anti-euro party Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) rally during an election campaign event in Frankfurt yesterday.

DPA/Heilbronn, Germany

German Chancellor Angela yesterday warned backers of her conservative Christian Democrat Union that this month’s election outcome will be close as she worked to mobilize voters.

“We have to fight. It will be close,” Merkel told a conference of her CDU in Heilbronn in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Opinion polls point to the CDU and its Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (CSU) allies remaining the biggest political bloc after the general elections on September 22.

But those same polls also show the current ruling coalition - of the CDU/CSU and the pro-business Free Democrats - as either securing only a narrow majority in parliament or even failing to win a parliamentary majority.

Up to six parties could be represented in the next parliament, including the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD).

This might force Merkel to turn to another party, such as the opposition Social Democrats, to forge a new coalition.

Germany’s south-west, which is home to some of the nation’s leading companies - such as Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Hugo Boss - forms a key part of the CDU’s election strategy.

The region has consistently produced an election vote for the CDU higher than the national average.

In her speech yesterday, Merkel called on the party’s delegates to speak with as many people as possible in the next few days and to point out how important their votes will be in the ballot.

“The election campaign will be only at the end, when the polls close,” the chancellor said.

The FDP has been struggling, with opinion polls showing the party hovering around the 5-per-cent mark, a level it needs to surpass to be returned to parliament.

Merkel and her party strategists are also concerned that CDU supporters might vote for the FDP for tactical reasons, to help ensure that the party makes it across the threshold to ensure the continuation of the chancellor’s present centre-right coalition.

In January, the CDU lost power in the state of Lower Saxony after party supporters voted for the Free Democrats in a bid to ensure the FDP remained in parliament.

“I ask voters to show their trust in my policies and to give both their votes to the CDU,” yesterday’s Kieler Nachrichten newspaper quoted Merkel as saying.

Under the German electoral system, Germans electors vote once for the candidate and once for the party.

One of the great unknowns of the election is what share of the vote the AfD will gain and whether it will be able to garner enough support to enter parliament.

In a separate interview, Merkel again ruled out teaming up with the AfD.

Nor is the AfD prepared to support Merkel as chancellor.

“We will not vote for a chancellor in whom we do not have any confidence,” AfD party chairman Bernd Lucke told the daily Welt online.

But, while Merkel was attempting to mobilize supporters, her main opposition challenger, Peer Steinbrueck, was attempting yesterday to head off the threat of a new campaign scandal following an offensive middle finger gesture he made in photo published on Friday.

The Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor candidate said the photo was “something humorous and relaxed. And many people see it like that.”

Steinbrueck was shown making the gesture in a photograph on the front page of the liberal Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper’s magazine section.

But 62% of respondents in a Forsa poll published yesterday found the gesture to be improper. However, 30% of those surveyed said they were not troubled by the photo, which SPD officials said Steinbrueck approved.

In the magazine interview, Steinbrueck was asked to respond to questions with gestures rather than with words.

His pose followed a question about whether he deserved nicknames including “problem Peer,” “gaffe-hit Peer” and “Peerlusconi” - a reference to former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi - following a series of gaffes that have plagued his campaign.