Germans go to polls
Conservative challenger Angela Merkel headed into today’s election in Germany with a good chance of becoming the country’s first female chancellor.
But the large number of undecided voters left it unclear whether she could win the convincing mandate she needs to forge ahead with tax and labour market reforms.
Polls opened at 8am (7am Irish Time) across Germany, with turnout expected to pick up as the day went along. In Frankfurt, the city’s financial capital, many shops planned to open for business despite normally being closed.
Voting was set to end at 6pm (5pm Irish Time).
If Merkel’s Christian Democrats cannot win a majority with her preferred partners – the small, pro-business Free Democrats – the former physicist could be forced to share power in a coalition with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats.
The most recent poll, carried out by the Forsa institute between Monday and Friday, put support for the Christian Democrats at between 41 and 43%, with the Free Democrats between 7 and 8%. That left it very much open whether they would win a majority in parliament.
If they do, Merkel – aided by her party’s control of the upper house of parliament – will be able to move ahead with proposals to streamline the tax system, make it easier for small companies to sack people and loosen the rigid labour market in order to tackle a 11.4% unemployment rate and low rates of economic growth.
Schroeder called for the election a year ahead of time in frustration at resistance to his attempts to fix the economy, as unemployment hit record highs in his seven years in power and growth remained sluggish. His limited measures cutting taxes and long-term jobless benefits have been slow to show convincing results.
There is also the outside chance that Schroeder will be able to stay in power, if he can cobble together a three-way coalition with his Social Democrats and the Greens, along with either the Free Democrats or the Left Party.
All parties involved have said they are not interested in such alliances, but observers suggest that either of them, especially the Social Democrats-Greens-Free Democrats alliance, remain possibilities.
