German election 2021: Polls open in race to succeed Angela Merkel — live updates
- The vote will decide who becomes Germany’s next chancellor when Angela Merkel steps down
- Opinion polls show the center-left Social Democrats leading on about 25%
- Merkel’s CDU-CSU conservative alliance is lagging on around 22%
- Some 40% percent of Germany’s 60.4 million eligible voters have said they are undecided
Last updated at 0900 GMT/UTC
Bavaria’s Söder says every vote counts
Markus Söder, the state premier for Bavaria, has cast his ballot. He is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) the sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that is limited to the southern state.
He tweeted a photo of himself dropping his vote in the ballot box, saying: “Today is the day of decision. Go vote and make use of you most important democratic right!”
“It will be a neck-and-neck final, it’s down to every single vote,” he added.
An election focused on personalities
DW’s Richard Walker said Germans said the campaign had been heavily focused on the candidates themselves, given that Angela Merkel has been in power for so long.
“She’s been this extraodinary phenomenon here,” said Walker. “There are so many younger voters who’ve known no other chancellor.”
“What we’ve seen during the summer is the voters kicking the tires on all of these candidates. Olaf Scholz is the one who’s emerged as the most popular. Much of the polling around these candidates really shows that he’s the person that Germans trust more than the other two but the question is whether that’s enough to get him over the line.
Scholz: A known face in German politics
DW political correspondent Nina Haase said that the Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) had “the most solid campaign” in the run-up to the vote.
“They simply did not make any mistakes, and that sounds easy, but if you look at what the conservatives [CDU] did, there was so much party infighting between the official chancellor candidate Armin Laschet and his rival from Bavaria, from the sister party [CSU], Markus Söder, who was sort of sending attacks over from the south, criticizing Laschet for the bad polling results and saying he would have been the better chancellor candidate.”
“And if you look at Annalena Baerbock from the Greens, there were allegations of plagiarism, she made some mistakes in her CV, she had to correct that. And Olaf Scholz just didn’t do any of that.”
Haase added that Scholz is a known face in German politics, having served the outgoing government as finance minister and as Angela Merkel’s deputy. “People know him as an efficient crisis manager, albeit not the most charismatic one,” she added.
SPD hopeful Scholz casts his vote
Olaf Scholz has voted in his Potsdam constituency. The former Hamburg mayor serves as finance minister and vice-chancellor under Merkel as part of the grand coalition.
Scholz is regarded as having had a good campaign, mainly by not making any huge blulnders
There was already euphoria among Social Democrats, well ahead of election day. Polling has shown that Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has a good chance to succeed Angela Merkel.
DW’s Sabine Kinkartz hit the road with his campaign trail to find out what voters were saying.
Green challenger urges voters to choose
The Green Party’s Annalena Baerbock has tweeted, urging voters to use to exercise their democratic right.
“Living in a democracy means having a choice,” she said. “It’s about all our futures.”
Smaller parties could play big role
DW’s Nina Haase has been reporting from the German parliament, highlighting the unpredictability of the election with many voters saying they are undecided. She says it will also be important to watch the performance of smaller parties on which the larger ones will rely to form a coalition.
“Turnout will matter a great deal. There were so many undecided voters. Some 40% of Germans said last week that they were still undecided whether they were even going to go to the polls, and then if they went, who they would vote for.”
She gave two reasons for this, firstly: “The incumbent chancellor is not running again and that is a historic first here for post-war Germany. Usually we have chancellors in office until they get voted out or they have to resign because of scandals.”
Secondly, “most of the candidates are not that well known nationwide, and there is no clear successor in sight and there are plenty of coalition options on the table.”
German president casts ballot
Germany’s head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has already voted at a Berlin polling station.
The president — a senior Social Democrat now neutral in his current role as Germany’s president — earlier issued an appeal to all voters in a guest commentary for the Sunday edition of mass-circulation newspaper Bild. He urged all those eligible to vote.
Ahead of the vote, Steinmeier spoke to the UN General Assembly on Friday, promising that Germany would not change whatever the outcome of the election, and would remain a reliable international partner.
The German president made an appeal to all those eligible to take part in the democratic process
Two state elections also taking place
As well as changes to the lower house of parliament the Bundestag, voting on Sunday will also affect the composition of the upper house — but only slightly.
The composition of the Bundesrat is decided by the regional elections in each German state, and there are two of these today.
One is in the capital, Berlin, while the other is in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The composition of the rest of the house will not change until the next set of state elections.
The vote for the Berlin’s House of Representatives will also determine who succeeds Michael Müller as the city’s next mayor.
Voters in Berlin will also get to have a say in a referendum on the takeover of large housing corporations.
Climate change is Berlin voters’ priority
DW’s Jared Reed has been at a polling station in central Berlin to find out what was on voters’ minds. The environment was the big issue here.
How the election works
The German electoral system produces coalition governments. It seeks to unite the principles of majority rule and proportional representation. Each voter casts two ballots. The first is for what is called a “direct” candidate from their constituency and the second is for a political party.
Any party that gets more than 5% of the votes is guaranteed a place in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.
Second largest legislature on Earth
The 5% system ensures that both big and small parties are represented, but it has led to the legislature becoming the second-biggest in the world with a possible 900 seats this time around.
The reason is the complicated German electoral law, and the mandates for the “overhang” seats (Überhangmandate) and compensation “leveling” seats (Ausgleichsmandate) that assure the composition of the Bundestag will be proportionate to the actual votes for the parties.
Polls indicate a close election
As Angela Merkel’s conservatives slipped behind and the center-left Social Democrats, the chancellor was forced to break her pledge not to get involved in the election campaign. The CDU’s Armin Laschet has played on fears of a swing to the left in his campaigning, and the gap narrowed in the final stretch.
The SPD’s Olaf Scholz is eager to hold on to his lead, seeking to convince voters that he is the most credible successor to Merkel.
Meanwhile, the Greens are appealing to voters on the theme of climate change, but face the challenge of attracting older voters.
DW went to see how the parties were responding to polling ahead of the big day.
Who are the candidates to succeed Angela Merkel?
There are three candidates seen as having a genuine chance:
Annalena Baerbock is the lead candidate for the Greens, with a focus on the environment. Following the Greens surge in polls earlier this year, they may become a kingmaker in coalition talks. Baerbock has been joint leader of the party, alongside Robert Habeck, since 2018. Although she has little government experience, media pundits praised her strong performances in TV debates.
Armin Laschet represents Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU and has led the party since earlier this year, following an internal power struggle. A long negotiation with Markus Söder, head of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, over who would take the role of chancellor candidate delayed his campaign start. He suffered in the polls following some high-profile public faux-pas, scandals, and criticism.
Olaf Scholz serves as finance minister and Angela Merkel’s vice chancellor. He is the lead candidate of the Social Democrats, currently the junior partners in the governing coalition. The former Mayor of Hamburg is the only main candidate who is not a party chair. He has enjoyed a surge of popularity in the polls in the run-up to the election and was seen as the winner of the final TV debate. He has also been plagued by his own share of scandals in his position as finance minister.
Polls open across Germany
Hello and welcome to our live updates on election day in Germany, with three candidates for chancellor in the running to succeed Angela Merkel.
Polls open at 8 a.m. local time (0600 GMT/UTC) and stay open until 6 p.m., when first official exit polls (usually a reliable indicator of the final results) are expected. We’ll be keeping you up to date throughout.
Roughly 60.4 million people in Germany are eligible to vote, though it’s unlikely all of them will be rushing to polling stations on Sunday. There’s every chance, given the coronavirus pandemic, that more will have voted by mail in advance than ever before.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a senior Social Democrat once upon a time but neutral in his current role as Germany’s president, issued an appeal to all voters in a guest commentary for the Sunday edition of mass-circulation newspaper Bild.
“Every vote counts, your vote counts. So I ask you, go and vote today! Whoever takes part will be heard, whoever doesn’t vote lets others decide for them,” Steinmeier wrote.
Judging by the opinion polls, every vote really could count in this election. The results appear wide open with little certainty over which party might emerge on top, let alone what coalitions might eventually be possible after the votes are in.
For more on what coalitions are possible, check out our gallery below for all the options:
Farewell, Frau Merkel!
Merkel won’t just be leaving as chancellor of Germany. She’ll also be handing over an important role in international politics. Here, foreign correspondents look back on Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor.
rc,ab/rs (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)
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