BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th September, 2021) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that her conservative CDU/CSU bloc was aware that holding on to the country's top job would pose a challenge in the September 26 election.
"It was clear to everyone in CDU/CSU that they would not get into the chancellor's office automatically and effortlessly after 16 years," she told a news conference in Berlin.
Merkel, who has held the office continuously since the 2005 Federal election, will leave politics after 16 years at the helm. Her party has banked on its new leader, Armin Laschet, to succeed the 67-year-old but it has been lagging behind Social Democrats in all recent polls.
Asked whether she saw her legacy threatened by Laschet's flagging popularity, Merkel said that the election day count was what really mattered.
"We are in the midst of an election campaign, and I see that it is real fighting... The election day will settle it all, so I will not get myself involved or speculate," she said.
Merkel largely stayed away from the fray since announcing in 2018 that she would not seek a fifth term. But her party's sliding ratings prompted her to make several interventions in the past weeks, going as far as to openly attack Laschet's main rival, Olaf Scholz.
