Muhamad Yehia
Germans will head to the polls on Sunday to choose their next chancellor. The man favored to clinch the election is Friedrich Merz of the
Christian Democrats. Polling second is the far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has been linked to neo-Nazis and to plots to overthrow the state.
Merz has been considered a potentially better match for President Trump than the current Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz, not least for his reputation for bluntness at a moment when Europe’s security environment is rapidly changing.
To get a sense of what’s at stake, I spoke with Jim Tankersley, our Berlin bureau chief.
What are the big issues galvanizing voters?
The first is the economy. Germany is in a crisis of stagnant growth and declining competitiveness. Its famed industries, like auto manufacturing, are slumping. Voters are frustrated and appear likely to evict the current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, over it.
The second big issue is immigration. Germany has welcomed millions of refugees over the last decade. They have adapted relatively well, but their presence has unsettled many native-born Germans. The dissatisfaction has grown after a series of seemingly unrelated attacks committed by immigrants over the last year.
How might the actions of the Trump administration affect the election?
Germans generally don’t like the American president, but until last weekend his actions didn’t seem to be motivating many voters. That might have changed after Trump essentially cut Europe — including Ukraine — out of negotiations with Russia over an end to the war in Ukraine.
?What impact could the AfD have on the outcome of the vote
The party has gained popularity based on an unrelenting promise to stop migration at Germany’s borders and deport some immigrants already in the country. Parts of it are formally classified as extreme by German intelligence, and some of its members have been arrested in plotting to overthrow the government or fined for repeating banned Nazi slogans. It is currently polling in second place. With a late push, it could potentially challenge Merz’s Christian Democrats for first.