“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.

“We want a new beginning, a government led by the SPD,” Scholz told a crowd in central Cologne, the largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, where Laschet has governed as state premier since 2017.

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With his trademark understated delivery, Scholz drew applause by pledging guaranteed pension levels and a hike in the minimum wage. The finance minister claimed credit for his part in shepherding Germany through the pandemic, helped by 400 billion euros (US$468 billion) in spending.

“We don’t need to be afraid” of such sums, he said, blasting Laschet for promising to cut taxes.

Laschet, 60, campaigned with Merkel in Munich on Friday. The chancellor urged party supporters to reach out to wavering voters in the final 50 hours.

While Merkel hammers a steady-as-she-goes message, Germany’s shift in recent months to a “change” election from a continuity ballot comes as Europe’s largest economy stands at an inflection point.

The next chancellor will also have to contend with the transformation of Germany’s vaunted auto industry toward electric vehicles.

Polls show Laschet and Scholz running neck and neck ahead of the election on Sunday. Scholz pulled off a stunning surge over the summer from a distant third place behind Laschet and Green candidate Annalena Baerbock. Most observers wrote him off as recently as August.

The 63-year-old German finance chief, whose reserved delivery echoes that of Merkel, has gained traction by persuading voters he’s the right candidate to take over Germany’s economy.

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Yet with polls showing the race tightening once more, Laschet is betting on a comeback that would allow him to claim the mandate to head the next government.

Even a narrow loss could imperil Laschet, though, with some party officials insisting that a second-place finish would disqualify the conservative bloc.

The SPD’s lead over Laschet’s CDU/CSU alliance shrank to 1 percentage point in an Allensbach poll for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published on Friday. Essentially, the race is too close to call.

The Green’s Baerbock, 40, whose initial promise dimmed over allegations of plagiarism and missteps in the campaign, also took her closing arguments to North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday, with a rally in state capital Düsseldorf. Earlier she appeared with climate protesters in Cologne, where demonstrators competed with Scholz’s rally.

A closed wind-turbine plant in Brandenburg state “is the result of 16 years of CDU – and 12 of SPD,” Baerbock said to cheers from the crowd of several hundred in the state capital.

Party grandees will make their way to Berlin on Sunday, where first projections of the election result, based on exit polls, will be released at 6pm (local time).

Election night will only be the start of a lengthy process of forging a governing coalition, which is likely to require three parties in Germany’s fragmented political landscape. A close result will make talks even more complicated; they could drag on for weeks or months.

Scholz would aim to take up preliminary talks for an alliance with the Greens and the Free Democrats, a match-up made difficult by the FDP’s hard line against new taxes and borrowing. The SPD could alternatively bring on the anti-capitalist Left party, though with that party’s rejection of armed missions abroad, it’s unlikely.

Should Laschet pull off a tight victory, he would also most likely lobby the Greens and FDP – a constellation that Merkel attempted in 2017 only to see it collapse when FDP chairman Christian Lindner walked away.