Merkel remains the favorite in Sunday's election.
The German election campaign is in its final stretch, and current Chancellor Angela Merkel remains the favorite in the polls and could take her fourth term; a survey shows that 34% of voters do not intend to vote or are still undecided; the elections will be next Sunday (24).
Brazil Agency - The German election campaign is in its final stretch, and current Chancellor Angela Merkel remains the favorite in the polls and could take her fourth term. A survey shows that 34% of voters do not intend to vote or are still undecided. The elections will be next Sunday (24).
On the 3rd, Merkel and her main opponent, Martin Schulz, participated in the only televised debate of the campaign, seen as the great opportunity for the candidates to convince undecided voters. Although Schulz harshly attacked Merkel on issues of immigration and relations with Turkey, the current chancellor fared better in the debate.
For many Germans, Merkel's re-election is already a certainty. According to experts, the number of people who may abstain from voting is considered very high. According to the survey released yesterday (21) by the company GSM, the abstention rate (34%) is 5% higher than in the last elections.
Fearing that a high abstention rate would favor the far-right AfD party, Angela Merkel and Schulz appealed to the population to turn out in large numbers to vote. Merkel's party (CDU) registered 37% of voting intentions, while Schulz's SPD registered 22%.
The far-right party, AfD, which has around 10% of voting intentions, has been receiving numerous criticisms for its members showing sympathy for Nazism and the use of violence. Alexander Gauland, one of the founders of the AfD, is a controversial figure and has stated, for example, that Germans should "be proud" of what their army did in the two world wars.
Given that the positions of the two main candidates, Merkel and Schulz, are very similar on several issues, it is believed that after Sunday's elections, conservatives and social democrats may govern again in a so-called "grand coalition." The parties have already been in coalition twice under Merkel's administration, between 2005 and 2009, and between 2013 and 2017.
It is estimated that 61,5 million people are expected to vote in these elections, 3 million of whom will be voting for the first time. However, more than a third of voters, 22 million, are over 60 years old.