On Sunday, 59.2 million German voters go to the polls at a time of unprecedented domestic and international tensions
Protesters gather during a rally outside the Christian Democratic Union party's headquarters in Berlin earlier this month. Tensions are running high in Germany in advance of Sunday's federal election. Photograph: Filip Singer/EPABetween the river Spree and the rebuilt Prussian palace, a stone plinth about 10 metres long is the only visible part of Germany ’s central monument to its own unification, 35 years ago.
On Sunday, 59.2 million German voters are called to choose a new Bundestag parliament at a time of unprecedented domestic and international tensions. As Ukraine’s future hangs in the balance, the White House and billionaire Elon Musk have intervened in the campaign to – implicitly and explicitly – endorse Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party . At least one in five voters plans to back the AfD, likely making it the second-largest party in the new Bundestag.
Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz acknowledges the applause after his speach during the CDU congress in Berlin, on February 3rd. Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images Germany’s battle against rising food and energy prices has absorbed much of the capacity intended for the so-called “traffic light” coalition’s promised “green, progressive transformation” of the German economy. That plan may have been doomed anyway, given the built-in fiscal contradictions of the Scholz SPD’S three way alliance with the Greens and liberal Free Democrats .
Shock over the attacks has provided a campaign boost for the AfD, which has tapped immigration fears and frustration with the Scholz coalition to double its support since 2021 to 21 per cent. Threatened 25 per cent tariffs on European car imports to the US would hit VW and its German rivals hard, given they supply 73 per cent of the total. Mexican-produced VWs, previously 40 per cent of the company’s US sales, have already been hit with 25 per cent tariff.
Germany Olaf-Scholz Migrant-Crisis Jd-Vance
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