German chancellor front-runner helped by opponents’ drawbacks

Berlin (dpa) – The front-runner in the race to be the next German chancellor isn’t enjoying his lead because of his attributes, but more because voters see his opponents as significantly worse.

This is the result of a new survey.

According to the YouGov survey, 51 per cent of candidates said Social Democrat (SPD) Olaf Scholz enjoys higher poll numbers than a month ago primarily because of the perceived weaknesses of Green Party candidate Annalena Baerbock and Armin Laschet, the centre-right choice.

Of the rest, 12 per cent said Scholz’s boost can be attributed to his personality while another 7 per cent said the centre-left candidate’s chances have been helped by “the messages that the SPD has been presenting in the campaign.”

Another 6 per cent say the identity of the SPD candidate plays little role in any success enjoyed by that party, while 24 per cent listed other reasons without specifying. The survey included responses from 2,017 people between September 3-7.

Scholz’s rise in the polls has come as a shock to Laschet’s Christian Democrats (CDU), who had expected to be doing better. They also have won little traction by threatening that Scholz as chancellor would likely form a coalition with the hard-left Die Linke party.

Scholz has been quiet about possible coalition partners, only saying that support for NATO would be a must for any ally. Die Linke, who partially descend from the ruling communist party of the former East Germany, have routinely called for the defence alliance’s dissolution.

Laschet hammered the point home during a speech to supporters in the southern city of Nuremberg on Saturday, arguing that Scholz is keeping the option of a coalition with Die Linke open. He drew a parallel, noting that the CDU has categorically ruled out any cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

“We will never talk to the AfD. They need to be removed from the parliament.”

He noted that Die Linke, aside from opposing NATO, have also sought to reject various EU treaties and even refused to back last month’s military efforts to evacuate German citizens from Afghanistan after the country fell to the fundamentalist Taliban militia.

It’s important for Laschet to make a strong appearance in Nuremberg, which is in Bavaria, which is ruled by the Christian Social Union (CSU), a Bavaria-only party in alliance with the CDU. The CSU had wanted its leader Markus Soeder as chancellor candidate, but they were overruled.

Soeder has made a nationwide impression during the coronavirus pandemic, often winning favourable reviews. Many in the party had said they thought Soeder would do better than Laschet. Nonetheless, Soeder made sure there was a warm reception for Laschet in Nuremberg.

Laschet noted that his campaign has seen stumbles.

“Obviously, not everything went optimally. We know this,” he said. But the focus was now on making strong appearances in the final two weeks before voting on September 26.

“We know that many, many people are undecided in these days,” he said, noting that many would be tuning into a debate featuring himself, Baerbock and Scholz on Sunday, their second of this campaign.

The goal, he said, is to make doubters realize that this election is about “core issues.”