There are six weeks to go until the federal German elections on Sunday 26 September, and Armin Laschet – Angela Merkel’s successor as party-leader – is in trouble.
Laschet, the CDU’s candidate who was chosen to replace the chancellor of 16 years, has not only taken a personal hit in the polls, but so has his party.
It is unclear whether it will stay that way. The CDU/CSU are not losing voters to its opponents. Rather, their base is unenthused and unwilling to commit. CDU canvassers could, therefore, find their “get out to vote” operation an easier task than were it an issue of winning back defectors.
In a previous piece, I wrote that it was “all to play for” in Germany. While the Green party’s Annalena Baerbock seems less relevant to the debate on who will be next chancellor than a few weeks ago, she and her party may yet fill the part of kingmaker in Germany’s next government. But with six weeks to go, the race is still open.
[Listen to: Why European social democracy is in crisis]
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