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International desk: Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to cruise to victory in elections Sunday but also to face the breakthrough into parliament of hard-right populists for the first time in Germany's post-war history.<\/p>\nInternational desk: Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to cruise to victory in elections Sunday but also to face the breakthrough into parliament of hard-right populists for the first time in Germany's post-war history.<\/p>\n
Voting begins at 0600 GMT in Europe's biggest economy and exit polls are announced at 1600 GMT, with few expecting surprises given Merkel's double-digit poll lead.<\/p>\n
For months, the woman now dubbed the “eternal chancellor” has been the favourite over her centre-left rival Martin Schulz and looked set to win another term and match the 16-year reign of her mentor Helmut Kohl.<\/p>\n
To many in the West, a fourth Merkel victory will come as a relief in a turbulent world, with hopes she will serve as a calm-headed counterweight to US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin and as the key EU ally to reformist French President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
But the election is also expected to mark a milestone for the four-year-old Alternative for Germany (AfD) which, like right-wing populists elsewhere, rails against migrants, Muslims and mainstream parties.<\/p>\n
It has been polling at 11-13 percent and could become Germany's third strongest party, driven by anger over the influx of one million migrants and refugees, many from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2015.<\/p>\n
“The AfD's entry into the Bundestag marks an epochal step forward for the far right,” said Joerg Forbrig of think-tank the German Marshall Fund of the United States.<\/p>\n
By entering parliament, he said, “the xenophobic, revisionist and anti-European political force” will have heightened visibility and access to campaign finance, dozens of offices and hundreds of staff.<\/p>\n
– ‘Democracy stress test' –<\/p>\n
After a “vicious” campaign, in which the AfD demanded an end to German guilt over two world wars, Forbig warned that “German democracy is about to face its biggest stress test ever”.<\/p>\n
At Merkel's final major stump speech Friday in the southern city of Munich, right-wing activists tried to drown her out with whistles and vuvuzelas and chants of “get lost”.<\/p>\n
But the 63-year-old refused to be derailed from her stability-and-prosperity mantra, telling the crowd that “the future of Germany will definitely not be built with whistles and hollers”.<\/p>\n
Schulz, for his part, recalled with pride the SPD's history of resisting the Nazi regime and told a Berlin rally that “this Alternative for Germany is no alternative. They are a shame for our nation.”<\/p>\n
Aside from the populist noise, the past two months of campaigning have been widely criticised as lacklustre, with few hot-button issues dividing the main contenders.<\/p>\n
The more outspoken Schulz, former president of the European parliament, has told voters to reject Merkel's “sleeping-pill politics” and vote against “another four years of stagnation and lethargy”.<\/p>\n
In greying Germany, more than half of the 61 million voters are aged 52 or older, and especially Merkel's conservatives have pitched a low-key and reassuring message of stability and prosperity.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Merkel — who has signalled she was running again mainly out of a sense of duty — urged her supporters to cast their ballots with a folksy call to “bring home the bacon”.<\/p>\n
– ‘Sleeping-pill politics' –<\/p>\n
For the past term, Merkel's CDU has ruled with the SPD as its junior partner in a “grand coalition”, marked by broad agreement on major topics, from foreign policy to migration.<\/p>\n
Governing in Merkel's shadow has cost the SPD voter support, and polls give it 21-22 percent compared to 34-36 percent for Merkel's conservative bloc, which also includes the Bavarian CSU.<\/p>\n
Looking at the surveys, many rank-and file SPD members believe the traditional working class party would benefit from a stint in opposition to rekindle its fighting spirit.<\/p>\n
This would leave the presumed winner Merkel in need of new coalition partners — possibly the liberal and pro-business Free Democrats, who are hoping for a comeback after crashing out of parliament four years ago.<\/p>\n
Another potential partner would be the ecologist and left-leaning Greens party, which, however, starkly differs with the FDP on issues from climate change to migration policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International desk: Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to cruise to victory in elections Sunday but also to face the breakthrough into parliament of hard-right populists for the first time in Germany’s post-war history. Voting begins at 0600 GMT in Europe’s biggest economy and exit polls are announced at 1600 GMT, with few expecting surprises given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n