Germans head to the polls this
Sunday to elect their next parliament. In our special election podcast, SPIEGEL
ONLINE Editor-in-Chief Barbara Hans discusses issues that have shaped the
campaign, Angela Merkel's prospects for a fourth term and the likelihood the
far right will win seats.
This Sunday, Germans will head
to the polls to elect the next Bundestag, the country's national parliament, a
vote that will also determine whether Angela Merkel will land a fourth term as
the country's chancellor. It's an election that began with an air of excitement
as Martin Schulz, Merkel's Social Democratic (SPD) challenger, returned from
Brussels, where he had been the president of the European Parliament.
Initially, it looked as though his candidacy could upend politics in Berlin,
which has slumbered through four years of a Grand Coalition, pairing Merkel's
conservatives with the center-left SPD that Schulz now leads.
After seeing his political
fortunes soar early in the polls, Schulz lost traction following a series of
losses for his party in state elections and a failure to score political points
with his message of greater equality in Germany. It now appears that Merkel
will easily cruise past the finish line and lead the next government in what
many observers view as a vote for stability in these uncertain times of Trump
and Brexit.
The election is also expected
to see significant gains by the Alternative for Germany party, which is almost
certain to become the first far-right party to win seats in parliament in
postwar German history. The party has run an Islamophobic, anti-immigrant
campaign that has cast light on an uglier part of the German political sphere
and on a segment of the voting population that no longer feels represented by
the country's mainstream parties. The AfD, whose campaign has taken its cue
from the "alt-right" movement in the United States, is likely to
bring a style of debate into parliament that the German political class has
successfully fought off for decades.
As part of our coverage of the
election, we have produced a special edition of SPIEGEL ONLINE's weekly
"Stimmenfang" campaign trail podcast in English. SPIEGEL
International's Charles Hawley and Daryl Lindsey sat down to discuss the
election together with Barbara Hans, editor in chief of SPIEGEL ONLINE. We hope
you enjoy it.
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