BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th September, 2021) With less than three weeks to go before the Federal election, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped into the fray, lauding allies and attacking opponents in a last-ditch effort to rescue her conservative successor before the September 26 vote.
The outgoing chancellor, who has until recently stayed aloof from the high-stakes race, praised the leader of her conservative CDU/CSU bloc Armin Laschet as a moderate candidate who will pursue her centrist policies. She took a swipe at Social Democrat Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not ruling out a coalition with the far-left.
"Citizens will choose in the coming days between a government of SPD and the Greens that is considering getting support of [the far-left] Linke � at least is not ruling it out � or a CDU/CSU government with Armin Laschet at the helm," she said.
Merkel's speech was interrupted by Social Democrats who confronted her over the claim of a possible alliance with the Linke. Scholz, whose party has recently seen its support rise to the levels unseen in years, says he prefers ruling together with the Greens, who are in third place in opinion polls.
"The best way for our country is a federal government led by the CDU/CSU, with Armin Laschet as a federal chancellor, because his government stands for stability, reliability and moderation, which is exactly what Germany needs," she insisted.
Merkel also attacked Scholz for claiming that Germans who have been reluctant to get a coronavirus shot viewed vaccinated people as "guinea pigs." The center-left frontrunner candidate lashed back at her saying that people who do not understand jokes "have little to laugh about, given the polls."
