Germans set to vote in national election to decide chancellor Angela Merkel's successor
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and North Rhine-Westphalia State Premier, Christian Democratic Union party leader and candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet, attend a rally ahead of the September 26 general election, in Aachen, Germany, September 25, 2021.
Opinion polls show the race for the chancellery headed for a photo finish, with Merkel's CDU-CSU conservative alliance on around 23 percent, just behind the centre-left Social Democrats on 25 percent – well within the margin of error. But with both parties likely to fall well short of the majority needed to govern alone, there could be weeks or even months of fraught coalition negotiations.
In the meantime, Scholz, who at the start of the year had looked down and out in the race, saw his ratings begin to rise as he avoided making such embarrassing mistakes. The Green party enjoyed a surge in support earlier this year after naming 40-year-old Annalena Baerbock as its chancellor candidate, at one point even briefly taking the lead as the most popular party.
On the eve of the polls, Scholz voiced his preference for a partnership with the Greens, calling on voters to give him the score needed to go with a two-way coalition.
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