Behind in polls just days before Sunday's vote, Angela Merkel's conservatives are raising the specter of far-left rule by the Linke party if the Social Democrats come to power in Germany
"You have to have a clear position on the extremists," conservative candidate Armin Laschet told his Social Democratic rival Olaf Scholz during a televised debate earlier this month. "I don't understand why it's so hard for you to say 'I won't enter a coalition with this party'."
Linke policies such as a rent cap and property taxes for millionaires would be enough to spook many in Germany's business class. "We're already in NATO," party co-leader Dietmar Bartsch told a recent news conference, dodging questions over whether its foreign policy views would keep it from entering government.
The party has outgrown its East German base, establishing strongholds in poorer, post-industrial cities in western Germany.
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