First poll test for Merkel

Frank ZELLER -

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party faces a first election-year test against resurgent leftwing challengers when voters go to the polls on Sunday in the tiny region of Saarland.

Although the state on the French border is home to just one million people, the poll there is seen as a first litmus test in the battle between Merkel and the resurgent Social Democrats under new leader Martin Schulz. The centre-left SPD has been gripped by almost giddy optimism under Schulz, 61, the folksy and plain-spoken former European Parliament president. The SPD has gained around 10 points nationally since Schulz took over in January with a social justice platform and a bold vow to end Merkel’s almost 12-year reign in September’s general election.

The “Schulz mania” has particularly drawn younger voters to the veteran workers’ party, which was founded more than 150 years ago, putting it neck-and-neck with Merkel’s conservative bloc — both nationally and in Saarland. Even if the CDU comes out ahead in the region, the SPD could grab power if it teams up with the far-left Linke and possibly the ecologist Greens parties — a so-called “red-red-green” coalition it is also flirting with nationally.

Merkel, 62, who was due to campaign in Saarland on Thursday, warned local voters that “red-red or red-red-green experiments should be avoided” and urged them to stick with the CDU’s “path of success”. A starker warning came from the top candidate of the pro-business Free Democrats, Oliver Luksic, who cautioned against turning Saarland into a modern version of the former communist East Germany or “a GDR lite”. While Merkel long seemed unbeatable at the ballot box, she has been weakened by a populist backlash against her decision to open German borders to refugees which has brought in a million asylum seekers since 2015.

Saarland, though tiny, in some ways reflects the bigger economic challenges. The former coal region, where the last mine closed in 2012, has sought to establish itself as a research and IT hub. The predominantly Catholic region was occupied by France after World War II and only joined West Germany in the mid-1950s. Since then it has been ruled by the CDU, alone or in coalition, except for the 1985-98 reign of former SPD premier Oskar Lafontaine.

Polls predict a tight race between the two top candidates.One is CDU state premier Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, 54, who is considered pragmatic and unpretentious. Her SPD challenger is AKK’s current deputy in a grand coalition, Anke Rehlinger, 40, who happens to hold the state record in shot put (16.03 metres). — AFP