DRESDEN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives turned their attention to the German economy and renewing voter confidence on the second day of a political retreat in Dresden.
The Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) were meeting less than one week before state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is expected to make significant gains.
In the face of waning German business activity, the steering committees of the CDU and CSU plan to sound out “how the German economy can be stabilised and how trust can be restored in the future.”
CSU head Markus Soeder said that the parties needed to turn their attention to basic investment in modern technology, especially as it relates to climate change. Other topics on the agenda include free trade, averting trade wars and how to avoid a hard Brexit.
CDU and CSU leaders have called on their campaigners to make a final push in the run-up to Sunday’s elections in the wake of strong polling results for the AfD.
Support for the AfD is particularly strong in Saxony, a key eastern German economic powerhouse where the anti-immigration party has been neck-and-neck with the CDU in recent weeks. Recent polling has shown the CDU moving ahead, however, recording support of 30 to 31 per cent as compared with the AfD’s 24 to 25 per cent. In Brandenburg, the SPD has made a strong showing against the AFD.
Merkel’s conservatives are keeping a close eye on how the SPD fairs in the upcoming elections. If the Social Democrats record sufficiently dire results in Brandenburg - where the party has headed state governments for the last 30 years - it could threaten the future of the coalition government in Berlin.
CSU General Secretary Markus Blume said the elections were particularly important and would be “decided by the final metres.” — dpa
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