Campaigning is reaching the final stages in the German snap election, with the leader of the CDU - and frontrunner to be the next Chancellor - pledging to restore Germany to a leadership role in Europe.
The campaign has been dominated by the rise in the far right Alternative for Germany party, the country's stagnant economy, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and immigration.
The election is taking place against the unprecedented strain in the transatlantic relationship, which seems to become more frayed with each daily utterance from US President Donald Trump.
At an event in Berlin last night, conservative Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz pledged to restore Germany to a leadership role in Europe.
Mr Merz is candidate to be chancellor for the two allied conservative parties (CDU/CSU) that are leading polls ahead of a snap federal election on Sunday.
The outgoing government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Mr Merz have largely avoided direct public criticism of Mr Trump's month-old administration. But senior US officials' remarks on NATO and free speech in Europe over the past week have been condemned by Berlin.
At the campaign rally in Darmstadt, Mr Merz said he hoped America did not slide into an authoritarian populist system.
He said that if the US remained a democracy, it would need partners as only autocratic systems operated alone.
The threat of US tariffs is a major concern for Germany which has been in recession for two years and whose automotive sector, the backbone of the economy, has been struggling with job losses.
Voters have registered the economy as a number one concern. Germany’s economic model, recently built on cheap Russian gas and a willing export market in China, has been turned on its head, partly due to the war in Ukraine.
Germany set for tricky coalition building, poll shows
The far-right AfD party, whose support is almost exclusively concentrated in the former east Germany, is hoping to exploit rising unemployment - and deepening concerns over irregular immigration - for electoral gain.
The party has doubled its support since the last election and is due to win second place.
Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats is languishing in third place at 16%. The CDU is expected to win 30% but will need at least one partner to form a coalition.
The party has ruled out working with the AfD.
With all parties refusing to work with the AfD in a country scarred by its Nazi past, the latest poll suggests it will be near impossible for any two of the other parties to form a majority.
Instead, frontrunner Mr Merz will likely have to form a three-way coalition with either the SPD and Greens or SPD and FDP, according to the poll, making negotiations all the trickier.
Coalition talks could therefore take longer, leaving Mr Scholz in a caretaker role but unable to take major decisions on the future of Europe's largest economy.
It also suggests the next coalition might be as incohesive and difficult to govern as the three-way alliance led by Mr Scholz that collapsed last November after just three years in power.
Mr Scholz's was the first such three-way coalition in decades at a national level - but such coalitions are set to become more frequent given the rise of the AfD and the decline of the erstwhile big-tent parties.
Still, the tone of the campaign has softened in the past week in a sign parties are preparing the path for talks.
Asked in a television debate if he would get into the boat of keen oarsman Mr Scholz, Mr Merz replied: "Yes."
Likewise, Mr Scholz affirmed he would take a plane with hobby pilot Mr Merz. "I assume he was given his pilot permit for a reason."
The moment of camaraderie belied the tensions that had erupted between the leaders in recent weeks over migration policy, however, and in particular Mr Merz's decision to attempt to push through a crackdown on migration with support from the AfD.
Mr Merz had previously vowed not to rely on AfD lawmakers to get measures through parliament. Mr Scholz and others said they could no longer trust him after his turnaround.
5 things to look out for in the German elections this weekend
Additional reporting Reuters
