Germany election contenders make final pitches ahead of critical vote

Germans are electing a new parliament Sunday after a campaign focused on the state of Europe’s biggest economy and calls to curb migration.

The contenders in Germany’s election made their final appeals to voters Saturday, with opposition leader and front-runner Friedrich Merz vowing to revive the stagnant economy and defend Europe’s interests in the face of a confrontational U.S. administration.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, insisted that he still hopes for an improbable last-minute comeback.

Germans are electing a new parliament Sunday after a campaign focused on the state of Europe’s biggest economy and calls to curb migration, while uncertainty has grown rapidly about the future of Ukraine and the strength of Europe’s alliance with the United States.

It appears to have done little to shift parties’ position in polls. They have consistently shown the center-right opposition, main challenger Merz’s Union bloc, in the lead. It’s ahead of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which is on course for the strongest result for a far-right party since World War II, but has no other party willing to go into government with it.

Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats have shown little sign of coming back from a large poll deficit after the chancellor’s three-party coalition collapsed in November following a long-running argument about how to revitalize the economy. That led to the election being held seven months ahead of schedule.

At a closing rally in a Munich beer hall, Merz told supporters that “three years in opposition are enough.”

Germany is a traditional leader of the 27-nation EU and the bloc’s most populous member, but like fellow heavyweight France has been consumed in recent months by domestic instability. Merz said that “with me, Germany will have a strong voice in the European Union again.”

“Europe must be a player and not ask maybe to get a seat at a side table,” he said. “No, we must sit at the main table; and we must safeguard our interests against Russia, against China, and if necessary also with respect to America.”