Germany election: Angela Merkel seeks to swing tight race to her party in final campaign push

The German chancellor appeared on the campaign trail one last time to stump for her would-be successor Armin Laschet

The race is too close to call with polls showing Laschet and front-runner Olaf Scholz running neck and neck ahead of the election on Sunday

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Chancellor Angela Merkel and Armin Laschet (right) at an election campaign in Aachen, Germany, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 7:19pm, 25 Sep 2021Updated: 11:01pm, 25 Sep 2021

In his first run for chancellor, Christian Democrat Armin Laschet risks losing the office that Angela Merkel held tight for conservatives for 16 years.

So a day before Germany’s most competitive election in almost two decades, Merkel joined him on the campaign trail one last time to stump for her would-be successor.

For voters who believe it makes little difference who the next chancellor is, Merkel sold Laschet as a leader who, like herself, will be a steady hand at the tiller of Europe’s largest economy.

“I can say from experience that in the political life of a chancellor, there are points at which it’s anything but irrelevant who governs,” Merkel said on Saturday in a packed square in Laschet’s home town of Aachen, a city on the western edge of the republic that was once the seat of power for Charlemagne.

With voters signalling a desire for change, Germany’s long-time leader is looking to salvage her own legacy after sitting on the sidelines for most of the campaign.

The election’s unexpected front-runner, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, made his closing pitch on Friday to voters in Cologne, long a bastion for the SPD.